Shortly after Jesus’ death, two of his followers are walking to Emmaus, talking about the tragic events of the preceding days. They encounter a stranger who asks them about their sad state, to whom they relay all that has recently happened. This stranger is Jesus and while they walk, he gives them the full picture of his true life, from the beginning of scripture onward. He enlightens them about the one long graceful story of His life, much greater than the apparent tragedy that they were most recently aware of.
Edmund Clowney has written a book that could be about that conversation. “The Unfolding Mystery” is a story about the one consistent narrative of scripture – Jesus. It is a story made up of myriad stories, all coalescing into a drama of love, justice and grace. It is a story told in many ways; through poetry, prophecy, architectural directions, royal chronicles, and the history of a nation, to name a few. The beginning of the story points to the end, and the end points to the beginning. Through it all resides Christ.
In high school I managed to write a paper on Dickens’ “Great Expectations” by reading the Coles Notes. It was a bad essay, but I think it was a good story with a lot of literary content, although I felt Dickens was paid by the word. Now that I have come to love scripture, I found that Clowneys book served a good purpose as a “Coles Notes” of the complex weave of history, prophecy, and characters that God uses to tell us the story of His Son. Clowney manages to illuminate the story lines in a chapter-by-chapter manner, looking first at Adam and progressively moving towards the full appearing of Christ. He takes Old Testament storylines and characters, one by one, and diligently shows how Jesus is embedded in each one.
Clowneys is a more comprehensive approach than just making us aware of where Christ can be found in the Old Testament, however. He makes great efforts to expand upon the contrasts that God uses to make things clear. For example, Adams temptation in the garden is placed next to Jesus own temptation in the garden, and we see that what Adam was unable to do, Jesus was able to do. Adams’ failure informs us about Jesus’ victory. How much greater that victory appears to us when we have the abject failure depicted next to it.
In further chapters, Clowney uses the story of Abraham and his son to explain the sacrifice of Christ. In telling us about Gods promise of Issac, and his command to Abraham to make a sacrifice, Clowney asks, “Did not the command of God destroy the promise of God? How could Abraham commit himself to trust the word of God when that very word appeared to be contradictory?” I can imagine the same problem burned in the hearts of those disciples headed to Emmaus. Clowney pulls the threads together in a simple and clear form, using many scriptures from the old and new testaments. Not content to focus on only the obvious, he also uses characters like Samuel and Jonah to show us Jesus as the point of scripture.
One of the things I appreciated about this book was the use of study questions and application questions at the end of each chapter. I’m old and I read at night, so a few questions to remind me about what I had just read were helpful. However, I found Edmund has a propensity to wander, and following his line of thought occasionally felt like a wilderness expedition.
This is a great book to have on ones’ shelf as a sort of field guide for finding Christ in the Old Testament. It gives you the distinctive features to look for, and teaches you to keep your eyes open for the greater story amongst the many stories in scripture.
Tony Bianco