JY: Welcome to GearTalk, a podcast on Biblical Theology. Today, Jason and Tom are continuing our look at promises found in the Old Testament. In this podcast, we consider two of the four ways that Jesus makes every promise yes. We’ve been going through Jason’s new book, Delighting in the Old Testament, Through Christ and for Christ. This will be a great help to you as you can consider how you can and must use the Old Testament. You’ll find a link to the book in our show note.

TK: Welcome back to GearTalk, Tom and Jason together today. Today our title is claiming Old Testament promises through Christ. Jason, I’m excited for this.

JD: I am too, Tom. To show the centrality of Jesus and the lasting relevance of numerous, many examples of Old Testament promises.

TK: All right, before we do, I want to go back to last week, and I don’t know if you do this. I read books with a pencil in my hand, and I write in the margin. And on page 170 of your book, so the book we’ve been going through, Delighting in the Old Testament, Through Christ and for Christ, and on page 170 I wrote the word helpful, and I underlined it a bunch of times next to your conclusion. So Jason, aren’t you glad I didn’t write unhelpful there or something else like that, right?

JD: All right.

TK: I had a friend, actually you know this friend, but he would borrow my book sometimes, and I would tell him, he would write things like that in margins. I was like, don’t write in my margins, all right? Like if somebody’s going to write unhelpful in a margin, I want to write it.

JD: Funny.

TK: But anyways, I wrote helpful, and this is what you said. You said the New Testament authors were guided by at least five principles when they related Old Testament promises to Christians. Number one, believers benefit from Old Testament promises only through Christ. Number two, Old Covenant curses become New Covenant curses. Number three, as part of the New Covenant, Christians inherit the Old Covenant’s original and restoration blessings. Number four, Christians already possess all blessings of their inheritance but will enjoy them fully only at Christ’s final coming. Number five, all true Christians will persevere and enjoy their full inheritance. And then you said the next chapter will overview four ways Christ serves as a lens for claiming Old Testament promises as Christians. I think these five principles, for me, just reading through them again, and I’ve read them several times just in preparation for today’s podcast, but I had already wrote the word helpful in the margin beforehand, they cover so many aspects of promises, these principles. So I would encourage you to go back and listen to last week’s podcast because you’re going to get those five principles unpacked. We’re not going to cover them today. So we’re moving forward, though, and what we’re talking about again today is claiming Old Testament promises through Christ and four ways Jesus makes every promise, yes. And we’re particularly talking now, we’re clearly talking about every promise, but we’re talking about Old Testament promises, right, Jason?

JD: That’s right, Tom. The goal of the book was specifically to help Christians delight in the Old Testament. So 75% of the words that our trustworthy God gave us in his book. We want to claim those, we want to see them for the Christian scripture they are. And so many of those are promises that Jesus has made yes for us. So step by step as we went through last week’s five principles, this week’s four different ways, Jesus makes every promise yes, I’m not trying to come up with these on my own. I simply spent time in the Word and found these operative within the Word itself. And I hope that people can do this kind of wrestling and see and judge whether what I have shared is true. That’s what every person needs to do. It’s what Paul commended the Bereans for, is that they were, the Christians in Berea, listened to what he said and evaluated whether indeed it aligned with the biblical text.

TK: Does it work this way or not? Yep.

JD: That’s right. We want what we say on this podcast to grow out of Scripture. And, today’s podcast is no different. Four different ways that Jesus makes every promise, yes. And as I say that, I’m thinking about Jesus using the same imagery of the lens that we used when we talked about the law, where different elements, where the Old Testament promises now come to us only through Jesus and are now realized, fulfilled in specific ways within this New Covenant context. So promises are made in the Old and fulfilled now through Jesus for us. Through Jesus they are made, yes. And we want to consider how that happens because not Jesus doesn’t fulfill all the promises in the same way. And so we want to consider at least four ways, and listeners may actually, as they are wrestling with their New Testaments, find more than these four.And if so, I hope they will let us know. But at least these four, I believe, are apparent. And I want our listeners to embrace these four different ways so that they can begin to claim promises they may never have known were theirs in the initial three-fourths of our Bible.

TK: And the way we talked about it with the law, and you have a picture of this in your book, so if you imagine you had a pair of glasses, like the kind of glasses you’d—not drinking glasses, reading glasses—and you popped out one of the lenses, and the lens was in front of you, standing up and down. And the way we talked about it with the law, you can imagine Old Testament laws on the left side of the lens. If the lens itself is Christ, you had a line going to the lens, and then that line somehow does something as it passes through the lens of Christ, how it comes to believers living in the New Covenant, our New Covenant fulfillment. So we talked about, for instance, the Old Testament law of Sabbath. What does it look like because of Christ coming as it passes through the lens of Christ? Well, here, take the same image. You have a lens standing up, and you have Old Testament promises, and they’re on the left-hand side, and they’re passing through Christ, and somehow they’re coming to New Covenant believers. So that’s the picture we have in mind as we’re talking about it. We have these promises on the Old Testament, and in the same way that light does something when it goes through a lens, what we’re saying is that the lens does something with the promises. Is that fair, Jason, to describe it like that?

JD: It is fair. There’s promises that come more like through the center of the lens, and they certainly get focused. I think about when I was a kid using a magnifying glass to fry things on the ground. The sun comes through and it gets focused.

TK: When’s the last time you did that, Jason?

JD: I don’t remember, but I know that I did and brought an end, brought an end to certain creatures.

TK: I did it too.

JD: These promises come through the center of the lens. They gain focus, but nevertheless, those promises are maintained, whether with or without extension, and we’ll talk about that. But other promises, like light coming through the side of a lens, and that light gets bent. So too, there are certain promises that don’t come directly through the center of the lens, but get either transformed or completed. So promises that are maintained, promises that are transformed, and promises that are completed. So we want to just walk through these different aspects of how Jesus fulfills Old Testament promises, and consider then their lasting relevance through Christ for us.

TK: Okay, so again, imagine a lens in front of you standing up and down, left hand side of the lens. What I have written, what you have written in your book, is Christ maintains some Old Testament promises with no extension. And what do you mean by that? What are you driving at?

JD: What I mean is that Christ, those promises, as clearly as they were made in the Old Testament, they continue as promises for us, this side of Christ, and there is no change in parties, and no further beneficiaries of this promise. That in the Old Testament, when it was originally given, it actually had Christians in view, or non-Christians in view. Promises that are just as relevant today in the exact same way that they were relevant prior to Christ, and yet they’re yes because of him.

TK: So this would be like passing through the center of the lens where light isn’t bending at all, it’s just coming straight through.

JD: That’s right. Maintained with no extension in any way, and many of these promises that are maintained without any extension, without any further beneficiaries, are specifically promises that are related to restoration. The Restoration People, which is a global people, on the other side of exile, a universal people made up of some from every tongue and tribe and people and nation. So take for example, Tom, Daniel 12:2, And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. God simply declares through Daniel, something that is true, was true for Daniel’s day and is still true for our day.

TK: And it was a promise because it hadn’t happened yet. He’s counting on something that will happen based on the faithfulness of God.

JD: That’s right. And Jesus actually alludes to that very verse when he says in John 5, An hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear the Son of Man’s voice and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. So there are those whose future eternity is hell, and those whose future eternity is in the very presence of God on the new earth, those realities haven’t changed. And so you’ve got a promise in the Old Testament that simply is carried over and even today remains a promise for us. Daniel didn’t have in mind that you and I would be a beneficiary of that positive promise unto life, but only because he didn’t know who the elect would be. But certainly he had a vision that in the future day there would be a universal remnant, a multi-ethnic remnant of God who would be saved unto life, resurrected unto life. And he also knew that there would be a large majority universally represented from all the nations on the earth that would be resurrected unto judgment. So this is just a simple example there’s an Old Testament promise that is maintained without any change context, any change of recipient. It’s just a promise, general promise given to all humanity that there will be a resurrection unto life and a resurrection unto death. And the question is, the listeners of those promises, how do I get to enjoy the resurrection unto life rather than the resurrection unto death? What does it take to be a beneficiary of the hope rather than a beneficiary of the dread?

TK: Right. And the fact that there’s no change, like, hey, that promise is the exact same, I suppose somebody could have the thought, I don’t even need the New Testament then because it’s the exact same, but it didn’t just transfer to the New Testament without going through the lens of Christ. That’s what we’re arguing here, is that even these promises that say, hey, that’s the same, they come to us through Christ. That’s how we access them. And you would say that’s how they access them also. They would have accessed them the same way.

JD: That’s right. Old Testament saints would enjoy the blessing of resurrection unto life only by faith in the coming offspring. Faith in that promise that he would finally come and make things right. So we have texts like, here’s Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Christ the first fruits, then it is coming those who belong to Christ. You don’t belong to Christ. You don’t enjoy the fulfillment. Because Jesus said earlier in John 5, I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me. Though he die, yet shall he live. So you’re exactly right, Tom. It’s not just that this promise is stagnant, remains the same. No, it’s only yes in Jesus. And ultimately, those who are in hell will be in hell because they have suppressed the truth of their neediness. They have pushed aside the grace of God in Christ. And so once again, even for the fulfillment of the promise of resurrection unto death, the yes is Jesus. Paul says in Romans chapter 2 that God’s kindness and gentleness is designed to lead people to repentance. It’s designed to lead them to faith in Christ. And yet if they refuse, they are storing for themselves wrath on the day of wrath. So we have this reality that those who presume on the riches of God’s kindness and forbearance and patience ultimately realized in the person of Jesus, their rejection of that saving grace of God will ultimately result in their justifiable reception of punishment. So Jesus gives yes not only to the promises of blessing and salvation, it’s those who belong to Christ, who will be raised unto life. But Christ also provides a yes in that his death provides just declaration of the justice of God against sin, the seriousness of sin, and the failure to accept what he has supplied to reject Christ as Savior and Lord. It is that rejection that will ultimately, as Paul says, because of your heart and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. And it will be revealed through the coming of Christ, his second appearing, and he will come as the agent of God’s wrath against those who failed to surrender to him, failed to believe in him. His worth, his person, provides the yes of even those promises of dread and destruction.

TK: So I’m reading my Old Testament, I’m reading Daniel, and I come across this promise, and again, it was, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. You actually get kind of two promises there baked into that passage. Some are going to receive life, some death. And the title again was Claiming Old Testament Promises Through Christ. So I read that, and as a believer, you’re saying, we have warrant to claim that as our own, but only as it passes through Christ.

JD: That’s right. There is a hope, even for, as we saw last week, vengeance is mine, I will repay. We claim the hope that God will indeed execute just wrath against all who are evil, all who have failed to love God and love his people. But we claim that through Jesus. We are recipients of hope, even in the coming judgment, only through what Christ has secured. And we are recipients of future inheritance and blessing, only because we belong to Christ.

TK: Right. So, this first category was Christ maintaining a promise with no extension. But your second category here is Christ maintains some Old Testament promises with extension, meaning there is a change.

JD: There is a change of the beneficiaries of this promise. And I love this reality, Tom, because we become recipients of promises that were given directly to others through Jesus. So, let’s take, for example, right off the bat a promise that was given to the Messiah in Isaiah. In Isaiah 49, God declares to his servant, the very one who would suffer in Isaiah 53, the very one God calls as Israel, Israel the person. Before Israel was a nation, Israel was a person. Jacob renamed Israel. And in Isaiah, he portrays a new person, Israel, who will become a new people. The servant will bear offspring, and those offspring will become servants. The servant will give rise to servants, and those servants will bear his mission.

TK: Mm-hmm.

JD: So in Isaiah 49, we read these words given to the Messianic servant. It’s too late a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Isaiah 49:6.

TK: So this promise is written, ultimately the recipient of this promise is Jesus. So it wasn’t spoken of believers in general in Isaiah 49 at that time.

JD: That’s right. Jesus is the one to whom God said, I’m going to use you, my servant, to restore the preserved ones of Israel and to let my salvation reach to the ends of the earth, to be a light to the nations. It was Jesus who would do that. And Paul affirms this very reality in Acts 26 when he says, I’m saying nothing to you, but what the prophets like Isaiah and Moses said would come to pass, that the Christ must suffer and that by being the first to rise from the dead, he would, and here it is, the allusion back to Isaiah 49:6, proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.

TK: So he just, almost to use our first category, he claimed that promise for Christ with no extension. But there’s more going on here.

JD: That’s right, that very promise is maintained. It was given to the Christ in the old, and it’s Jesus who fulfills it in the new. And Paul sees Jesus as the agent of bringing light both to our people, meaning the Jews, is what he’s referring to, and to the Gentiles.

TK: Mm-hmm.

JD: But that’s not the only way Paul understood that verse. Because earlier in the book, in Acts 13, he claims that this verse, this promise, is defining his and Barnabas’ marching orders, why they left the synagogue and headed to proclaim good news to the Gentiles. This is what he says, Acts 13, 46 and 47, We are turning to the Gentiles, for so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

TK: In some ways, it’s a little funny because he says, the Lord has commanded us, and you say, wait a minute, that came from Isaiah 49. He didn’t command you there, it was about the servant. But Paul has claimed it for himself.

JD: That’s right, and I think what’s happening here, and I summarize this in this little chart on the page, but God promises that his servant will be a light to the nations. That servant is Christ. He is the servant light. But faith, Tom, unites us to Christ, and union with Christ makes us servants with him, such that now we join Christ as lights to the nations. Think about how the beginning of Acts opens. O Theophilus, you know all that I proclaimed to you about what Jesus began to do and to teach. What I proclaimed to you in my first book of what Jesus began to do and to teach. That first book is the Book of Luke. And in the Gospel of Luke, we’re told all that Jesus did from his birth to his ascension. And Luke says at the beginning of Acts, that’s what Jesus began to do and to teach. So what the Book of Acts is, is an unpacking of what Jesus by his spirit continues to do and to teach through his church. That the very promises that became commands, as Paul read them, the promise, I will make you a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. That was the mission of Christ, and it’s now the mission of the church as the body of Christ. We’re carrying out the mission of Jesus. He is working his mission through his people. That’s what the church is.

TK: We are an extension of him, so the promises made about him in this passage become ours.

JD: That’s right. Tom, you’ve seen something very similar in Psalm 2 and in the Book of Revelation. What do you see there?

TK: Oh, Psalm 2 is remarkable. This is a psalm. It’s one of the most quoted psalms about why the nations rage, the people’s plot in vain. It says at one point, he says, I will tell the decree, the Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. This psalm is quoted in reference to the Lord Jesus so many times in the New Testament. But what’s amazing is it’s also applied directly to the saints. And what it says in Psalm 2:9, I’ll start in verse 8, it says, ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. So it’s something that we would say that belongs to the Lord. It’s a promise. At that point, it hadn’t happened yet. But in Revelation, John writing it, he’s recording the words of Jesus. And this is flat out, this promise is applied to the saints. Those who conquer, the one who conquers, he will inherit the nations, will break them with a rod of iron, dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Psalm 2 is applied to the saints. So the promise in Psalm 2 made to God’s Son extended to include those who are in God’s Son.

JD: And it’s amazing, just like we saw in the book of Acts, where that verse is clearly, Paul recognizes it was applied to Jesus, but then he also applies it to himself because he’s in Christ. He’s one of the servants of the servant. So too in Revelation, you’ve got Revelation 12 and 19, both of which apply that imagery of ruling with the rod of iron. It applies it directly to Jesus. But earlier in the book, it applied it to the saints.

TK: Yeah, you can’t say John’s confused. He’s not confused. It’s just his category is beyond just this applies to Jesus. He says, “no, theologically, if it applies to the Christ, it has to apply to those who are in him.”

JD: In Isaiah 42:7, we see something similar where it says, How beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news. And yet in Romans 10, and I’m sad that the NIV continues to translate Isaiah 42 as a plural, because I think it misses the whole point. In Isaiah 42:7, How beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news. And I think that one who’s bringing the good news is none other than the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. But Paul cites Isaiah 42:7. I’m saying Isaiah 42, I meant Isaiah 52. Isaiah 52:7, “How beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news.” he cites it in Romans 10, and yet he says there in Romans 10:15, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news. Through Jesus, through Jesus, that declaration of hope is now ours.

TK: It’s really important that we have that category of extension, that it applies to Christ, but because of his coming, it’s extended to us rather than us just claiming it on our own, as if it’s not an extension from Christ. But translations, if we miss it, and we just like almost bake the extension into the Old Testament passage, we miss the fact that, no, it’s the coming of Christ that did this. I’m looking, I just pulled up Psalm 1. And it says, “Blessed is the man,” and it goes through about what happens to the obedient man who has perfectly obeyed Yahweh’s laws. And he is like a tree, and it goes on. But you get like the New Living starts out Psalm 1, Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked. They go straight to an extension without saying, “No, it has to pass through the Blessed Man first.”

JD: That’s right. And that’s why Psalm 1 opens, “Blessed is the man,” and then Psalm 2 ends, “Blessed are those who find refuge in him.”

TK: Right.

JD: That’s where the extension happens. It’s already being anticipated within the Psalms themselves, within the whole Old Testament. But we have to let the original promise stand, the original declaration stand as being given to the Messiah, and then only in him do we enjoy the blessing and the promises.

TK: So Jason, what keeps me from, and we’re working into further categories you have here, but what is a safety net, or not a safety net, a guardrail of some sort to keep me from grabbing promises that you’d say, ah, you can’t do that there? So this idea of extension, can I extend everything to me?

JD: We always want warrant, and that is biblical warrant for what we are doing, and considering parallel examples, considering how certain books, promises are used, and trying to understand how is it being done. If we can’t build a case to show someone how we got there, I would be very cautious to claim that I’m right.

TK: Hmm.

JD: So we want to, as teachers and preachers, be able to show from scripture what’s going on, and that’s what I’m trying to do in considering how is the New Testament doing what they’re doing, showing there’s actually a framework, there’s a theological framework that is at work, and we can see that framework operative within the text itself.

TK: Right. It’s like in math when we used to have to show our work. That’s the idea is, “Okay, show your work. How did you get there?”

JD: That’s right. Exactly, Tom. That’s correct.

TK: So can you — I’m looking at one you have here Hebrews 13:5.

JD: Yeah, I want to do this one because we brought it up the very first week where we were addressing promises, where the writer of Hebrews claims for Christians a promise that Moses and Yahweh actually made to Joshua just before he entered the Promised Land. And this is more tricky, Tom, because we’re not in Joshua, the one who led Israel into the Promised Land. That’s not the one we’re in.

TK: Right.

JD: he wasn’t our representative head. So how is this promise working its way out? And I want to try to consider this with our listeners. Here’s what we read in the Old Testament. Moses declared, It is the Lord who goes before you, Israel. He will be with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. Later it was Yahweh who said to Joshua, Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. That’s right, to Joshua. When he received this promise, what was true for him would be true for all who followed him.

TK: Yep.

JD: As Moses himself had said, “Don’t fear or be in dread, for it is the Lord who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” Now, somehow, this promise that was made to Joshua and to all who followed Joshua is claimed in Hebrews 13, just like you said. Keep your life free from the love of money. Be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you or forsake you.

TK: And first of all that last phrase you’re saying comes from the promise in Joshua.

JD: Given specifically to Joshua, I will never not leave you or forsake you. Hebrews 13:5, Joshua 1:5. So we just have to ask, how in the world? I mean, I would be hesitant initially to just go claiming a promise that was made to an individual at a different time in history, and yet the writer of Hebrews somehow gets there. How is it that he takes a promise for Israel’s leader before the conquest of Canaan and makes it a promise for Christians today? Now, as we consider this, we have to remember something, that the whole context of the wilderness and the conquest narratives are massively important to the author of Hebrews in the way that he uses them to magnify who Christ is and that the New Covenant is better. Moses was faithful to God as a servant, whereas Christ is faithful as God’s son. Most in the Exodus generation, the writer of Hebrews tells us, rebelled, hardening their hearts in unbelief, and because of this, the Lord said, you shall not enter my rest. Some like Joshua did believe that God was able to secure rest, but all the rest were disobedient and died, we’re told in Hebrews 4, because of their unbelief. So later, Joshua led Israel into the Promised Land, but the rest that he secured was only temporary.

TK: Mm-hmm.

JD: It was predictive of a greater rest that the supreme Joshua, and what’s intriguing, Tom, is that the Hebrew name for Joshua is equivalent to what the Greek renders as Iesus, Jesus. So Jesus is by his very name a greater Joshua. Yahweh saves. That’s what Joshua means. That’s what Jesus means. And the writer of Hebrews says what Joshua led Israel into, that initial promised land, was merely a foreshadowing of a greater rest that awaits all of the saints of God. And that greater rest, according to the book of Hebrews, is secured by the greater Joshua, or Jesus.

TK: Yep, Hebrews 3 and 4.

JD: That’s right, Hebrews 3 and 4. So if the Lord was with the first Joshua and all who followed him, how much more, I think this is the logic, this is how the writer of Hebrews is getting there, how much more can we be assured that he will be with. Those who are with the greater Joshua, Jesus Christ? The original promise that God gave to one man bore implications for all who followed him. And now in the New Covenant, the same promise expands to all who are in Christ. We already share in Christ Jesus. Hebrews 3:14. Yet we don’t fully enjoy all that has been promised. There is a greater rest, a more fuller inheritance. But because God has pledged, I will never leave you or forsake you, Christians today get to rest securely, knowing that we will one day fully enjoy all the inheritance. It’s truly ours now, it’s truly ours now, and we’ll be fully enjoyed in the future.

TK: I like, so it’s on page 181, you have a little like, so again, thinking of math, where you show your work, how did you get this answer? you have five statements, and there’s like a little arrow, so statements are arranged from left to right, and there’s an arrow between each statement. So starting, okay, here’s where we started from. So again, it’s Hebrews 13:5, is the author of Hebrews, takes a promise made to Joshua, and he says, this is why you should keep your life free of money, because you have this promise. That’s why you should be content. And the question is, wait a minute, the promise was made to Joshua in the Old Testament, not to me. How did the author of Hebrews get there? It’s not that I invented it. The author of Hebrews put it there. So, first statement is, God promises to be with Joshua as he leads God’s people into the promised land. It’s a great statement. Then you have an arrow going to a second statement. All those following Joshua will also enjoy God’s presence. So, the fact is, if God’s with Joshua, then if I’m with Joshua, he’d be with me also. Correct. Third statement. Joshua’s name and role points ahead to Jesus, the greater Joshua. Like you said, his name translated into Greek, same as Jesus. So, you’d say there’s a correlation between the two. He passes through the Jordan. Jesus passes through the Jordan in his baptism. You’d say there’s a great type here. He’s actually the one who brings God’s people into the promised land, not Moses. There’s a lot of connections here. So, points out that Jesus is a greater Joshua. Fourth point, Jesus is God with us and is leading God’s people into a greater promised land. And then, final point, all those following Jesus also enjoy God’s presence. So, the writer to Hebrews can say with confidence that promise stands for you. Claim that, God’s presence with you, instead of loving something else more than that, like money.

JD: That’s right. And we could even go just one step further, I think. Why money? Why does he bring it up in the context of covetousness?

TK: Yeah, good question.

JD: And one of the, I mean, at the very beginning of the book of Joshua, we have the story of Achan, who coveted what he should not covet. He wasn’t content trusting that God would be with him. And so, God brought punishment against him. And yet, in Christ, what happens is we’re freed from the love of money and we’re empowered to actually enjoy contentment and to live radically.

TK: Because God will give us what we need.

JD:  In the hope of tomorrow. That’s right. And so, the writer of Hebrews can say things like, you had compassion on those in prison. You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. One that was secured through the person of Jesus.

TK: That’s really good.

JD: And that’s why I, so I think very likely, we even have Achan in the background. And the point is, you’re freed from all this. You’re freed to hope in the future, knowing that your future is secure, you can live contentedly today.

TK: So Jason, we started saying we have four ways Jesus makes every promise. Yes, we’ve covered two of them. I think the last two, I’d like to save those for next week if you’re good with that. Because they demand a little thinking. But does that sound Okay to you?

JD: Sure, Tom, that’s great.

TK: I think, so what we have today, four ways Jesus makes every promise, yes. With the lens, the first way, Christ maintains some Old Testament promises with no extension. We looked at a passage in Daniel, and the promise there didn’t change. It went through the center of the lens as it came to us. But then we just looked at a passage, which is point number two. Christ maintains some Old Testament promises with extension, though. So something that was extended to us, and we looked at a promise made to Christ in Isaiah 49, and that’s extended to the people of Christ. And I think Paul shows us how he got there. He shows us his work. And then we look at a promise made to Joshua that was extended again to the people of Christ. Anything you want to add as we close, Jason?

JD: Well, I just find such hope in reading our Bibles like Jesus and the apostles did. They were the ones who set the patterns for us to follow. And because of that, 75% of our Bible is opened up to us for the Christian scripture that it actually is. And I am just eager for men and women of the Word to begin embracing God’s promises, finding hope in the midst of their suffering, and finding promises to motivate deeper levels of holiness as they pursue Christ.

TK: That’s really good. Next week, we’ll cover two ways because, again, like the lens, everything isn’t passing through the lens at the same angle. And so some of them are transformed in some ways, and we’re going to talk about that.

JD: Awesome.

TK: All right. Thanks, Jason. Blessings to you.

JD: Thanks Tom.

TK: Thanks for listening.

JY: Thank you for joining us for GearTalk. Be sure to join us next time as we look at the final two ways Jesus Makes Every Promise Yes. Go to our show notes for a link to Jason DeRouchie’s book, Delighting in the Old Testament. You’ll find a large number of resources including lectures, outlines, articles, and sermons at jasonderouchie.com. You’ll find many resources for teaching and preaching in a number of languages at handstotheplow.org.