Bible Overview

Andy Taylor | October 2013 - Highfields Book of the Month

By Steve Levy with Paul Blackham - (2008) Tain: Christian Focus

The saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, but I say don’t judge this book by its title. Steve Levy, a local pastor in Swansea, writes a very readable and helpful overview of the Bible. It’s a book both for a young Christian and an experienced theologian. Most evangelical Christians will agree that the Bible is all about Jesus but Levy takes that a little bit further and states that we actually see Jesus in the Old Testament more than you think.

The introduction and part one encourages us to understand the Bible’s main themes and read it in the way the Bible itself tells us to.  He tells us what Jesus himself believes about the Bible (Luke 24:25-27) and how we meet Jesus right at the beginning of creation (John 1:3) and not just in Matthew’s gospel.

However what makes Steve’s views on the themes of the Bible interesting are that the Old Testament doesn’t just foreshadow and prophesy Jesus but that the main characters like Abraham, Moses and David and Isaiah spoke about him and even met him. (Deuteronomy 18:15 / Acts 7:38; Isaiah 6:1 / John 12:41; Psalm 110 / Matthew 22:43)

The name Jesus is of course never mentioned in the Old Testament but Jesus is referred to by other names, for example, ‘Angel of the Lord’, ‘Commander of the Lord’s army’, ‘Son of Man’, ‘Lord’.

Steve then takes the reader through the Bible grouping the sixty-six books into ten sections:

1. Creation to new creation. This chapter introduces the characters Adam, Enoch and Noah and shows us the need humanity has for a saviour because of sin and the covenants God makes with people.

2. Father Abraham. Steve shows us how Abraham met Jesus and had the gospel preached to him.

3. Redemption. The exodus story, so familiar to us, obviously pictures the cross of Christ but Levy shows us Jesus further in the book of Exodus by exploring what the law, the tabernacle and the priesthood tell us about Him. 

4. Promised Land. Joshua in Greek means Jesus and the whole book describes the inheritance God’s people have in Christ as the Israelites conquer the land of Canaan. 

5. Kings to exile. God promises a king and David is the man after God’s own heart unlike Saul but he wasn’t the one God had promised nor were his successors.

6. Latter prophets. The prophets spoke of Jesus continually and Isaiah even saw him in a vision (Is 6:1).

7. The Writings.  See Jesus in the books of Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah, Psalms and Proverbs.

8. The Gospels. The four gospels reveal so much to us about how the whole Bible speaks of Jesus by showing us quotation, allusions and references to Jesus from the Old Testament and Jesus in the flesh.

9. Acts and the church. The gospel first preached to Abraham is being fulfilled in even greater ways through the church as the gospel spreads to all nations.

10. The church in Revelation. This final chapter shows us how the church and the Old Testament pictures of it all reflect Heaven itself. It reminds us that the final victory and complete fulfillment of all God’s promises come to fruition at Christ’s second coming.

There are some really useful appendices at the back exploring frequently asked about the Bible’s main themes, Old Testament quotes in the New, a discussion about continuity and discontinuity between the Old and the New Testament.

This book is well worth a read with Levy’s light hearted and witty illustrations you’ll get through it in no time.