Understanding and Applying Jesus's Bible: The Old Testament for Christians

The Old Testament is useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training, to complete and equip you for every good work. But do you know how to use it?

It’s a vital question, if we’re to be doers of the word and not hearers only. But DeRouchie offers clarity and guidance in his eleven-step process of understanding and applying Jesus’s Bible to nurture Christian hope and magnify Christ our Messiah. Understanding and Applying Jesus’s Bible will guide you on a journey of discovery through five topics.

• Text: “What Is the Makeup of the Passage?” (Chapter 1),
• Context: “Where Does the Passage Fit?” (Chapter 2),
• Observation: “How Is the Passage Communicated?” (Chapter 3),
• Meaning: “What Does the Passage Mean?” (Chapter 4),
• Application: “Why Does the Passage Matter?” (Chapter 5)

Jesus’s Bible is most useful to Christians when we can read it as Christ meant it to be read. When we learn to approach it this way, studying the Old Testament becomes a unique, irreplaceable means of encountering, enjoying, and obeying Jesus the Messiah.

In this brief and practical book, you will be trained in reading and applying the Old Testament.

• Whether you’re a Sunday School teacher preparing for a class,
• a pastor who needs study principles ready at hand,
• a parent who wants to enhance family worship or Old Testament instruction,
• or simply a follower of Jesus who wants to uncover deeper riches...

...this roadmap will build your competence in understanding and applying the first 39 books of the Bible, all while increasing your confidence that the Old Testament isn’t only true: It’s also truly useful!

Jason DeRouchie is Research Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology and the Rich and Judy Hastings Endowed Chair of Old Testament Studies at Midwestern Seminary; Content Developer and Global Trainer with Hands to the Plow Ministries; and a Pastor of Sovereign Joy Baptist Church in the northland of Kansas City, MO. His books include How to Understand and Apply the Old Testament: Twelve Steps from Exegesis to Theology and Delighting in the Old Testament: Through Christ and for Christ, of which Enjoying Jesus's Bible is a distillation.