There is great value in reading the Bible daily and at some length. A verse or two a day is better than nothing, but spending time in the Scriptures really is good for the soul and our faith. For those who don’t know where to start, we have reading plans readily available to help assist. For those who don’t think they have the time, think of how much time you and I spend daily watching television, reading the newspaper, or reading novels. I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll feel significantly better after reading the Bible daily.

As I continue through the ESV Reading Plan, I’ve started to notice just how many people throughout the Old Testament experienced a Christophany – a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. It wasn’t just Abraham, Moses, and Joshua who saw Christ, but Hagar, Baalam, the Israelites at Bochim, Manoah and his wife, Gideon, Zechariah, Elijah, David, Sennacherib’s Assyrian army encamped against Jerusalem, Jacob, the list goes on, and on, and on.

Isaiah writes “Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.” (45:15) And yet, God reveals Himself in Christ, “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15) and makes Himself known in countless times and places, recorded by eyewitnesses throughout the Scriptures.

While a great number of people had encounters with the pre-incarnate Christ, not all of them did. Yet the promise that Christ would be known to all who believed in Him remained throughout the Old Testament. God tells Jeremiah, “No longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more,” (31:34) and He tells Isaiah, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (56:7) In Christ, through Christ, and by Christ, the grace and salvation of God is no longer limited to a specific people in a specific time and a specific place, but is open to all peoples in all times and in all places.

Christ did not die on the cross and rise to newness of life to destroy sin, death, and the devil for Israel only, but for the Gentiles as well: the Greeks, the Germans, the French, the Finns, the Norwegians, the Bantu, the Han, the Hmong, the Haudenosaunee, the Kalmyks, the S’Klallam, the Māori, and all other tribes, tongues, nations, and peoples.

Christ makes Himself known through His Word and Sacraments to all, and promises that all who have the faith in Him that He gives to His own will behold and see Him. What a great and gracious gift, appreciated all the more once we see how He works among His people from Genesis through Malachi, from Matthew through Revelation.

The seeds of Easter occur even before Genesis, and God’s Kingdom exists without end. Christ has planned all from before the foundations of the world, and will reign with His people through all eternity. Thanks be to Christ, who makes “all things new” (Rev 21:25)! Thanks be to Christ, who has destroyed our sins and death and the world’s hold on us through the Cross and His Resurrection, raised us to newness of life and sealed us to Himself in our Baptism, feeds and nourishes us with His Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper, and promises to raise us from the dead to bring us bodily to Himself in the eternity of life of the world to come! Thanks be to God who tells us of these things through His Holy Word!

Christ is Risen!

~ Pastor Singer