Hank Smith: 00:04 Happy Easter, everyone. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith, I’m the host of a podcast called followHIM and I’m here with my springy co-host, John Bytheway. You’re so springy, John. It’s Easter and we are so celebrating Easter.

Hank Smith: 00:21 What’s interesting this year, John, is Easter is all about Jesus. But our study this year is all about the Old Testament. And someone might say, “Well, there is no Jesus in the Old Testament.” So how do you connect those two? How do you find Jesus in the Old Testament? Because he’s not specifically listed as Jesus said this or Jesus did that, but yet we see Him all over the place. Where do you see him in the Old Testament?

John Bytheway: 00:47 That’s what’s so fun about this. People might think, “Well, how come we’re interrupting the Old Testament with Easter?” No, the Old Testament is all about Christ and foreshadowing Him and how Moses was such a strong type of Christ and all of the sacrifices of the law of Moses and the Passover and unblemished lamb. All of these things, a male first born, unblemished lamb, were all pointing us to Christ, and ultimately, His sacrifice.

John Bytheway: 01:13 I love that how we’re all looking forward in time, and the house of Israel was, forward in time to the great and last sacrifice, the Book of Mormon might call it. And now it’s kind of like every time we go to sacrament meeting, we’re looking backward in time to that the events of the atonement, Gethsemane and the cross, and the resurrection. We’re looking backward to that meridian of time. And so, no matter where we are in the scriptures, we’re talking about Christ.

Hank Smith: 01:42 We’re trying to point those out this year as we go, but I’m sure we’ve missed some along the way. We talked about Abraham and Isaac, this idea of a father offering a son as a sacrifice, and that points us to Christ. We’ve talked about Joseph in Egypt who was sold and then ends up saving the very people who hurt him. Definitely.

John Bytheway: 02:03 Sold for the price of a slave, like Jesus was, and also went into Egypt like Jesus did briefly.

Hank Smith: 02:10 Right. Then we looked at Moses and how it’s this miracle, basically a miracle baby who was born. The Pharaoh tries to kill him just like Herod tried to kill the children of Bethlehem. And then he flees away and returns back one day to deliver, to save Israel. So there again is the story of Jesus. And we still have more to come.

John Bytheway: 02:32 The messianic chapter of Isaiah is Isaiah 53. Abinadi quotes it to King Noah and the wicked priests, because they said, “We teach the law of Moses.” Abinadi said, “Well, if you teach it, keep it. But salvation comes in Christ.” Then he reads Isaiah 53. “He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, with his stripes we are healed.” How do you miss that? He’s kind of saying to them. This is all about the Savior. The Savior is all over here in the Old Testament if we’re looking for Him.

Hank Smith: 03:03 I think it’s Job who’s going to ask, “If a man die, will he live again?” That is the question that Jesus answers. This Old Testament question that Jesus puts a profound, “Absolutely, he will live again.” I noticed that when we speak of Easter, we could talk about Jonah. Jonah goes into the whale for three days. Somewhere he never should have come out of. No one goes into a whale and comes back out.

John Bytheway: 03:27 Nobody I know has come out of it.

Hank Smith: 03:29 But yet Jonah did. And that’s the tomb for Jesus. That Jesus goes into the tomb, a place where nobody should come back out of, three days later He comes out of the tomb.

John Bytheway: 03:40 And Jesus uses that. There won’t be a sign except for the sign of Jonah, he says. They have to think, “Wait, what happened to him, and how is that sign going to be similar?”

Hank Smith: 03:49 And we’re going to be discussing Kings here during the Old Testament. We’re going to talk about the Savior coming again as the King. So there’s still so much to come where this incredible Old Testament book, this Hebrew Bible can point us to the Savior. One of my favorites that I hope we get to talk about is Abigail. How Abigail offers herself up to David. She says, “Let the sins of my husband be upon me. Let them be upon me.” A wonderful type of Christ taking on our sins. So I think we’ve just scratched the surface so far and there’s still more to come on finding Jesus in the Old Testament.

John Bytheway: 04:28 That just makes it kind of fun and exciting. It’s like taking apart a parable or something. So when we start looking for Him, we’ll start seeing Him everywhere, and the Old Testament will be a blessing for us.

Hank Smith: 04:39 There’s just a lot to come. We hope that you’ll join us on our podcast, because we’re going to take apart the Old Testament here for the rest of the year. But for this week we want you to have a wonderful, happy Easter.

Hank Smith: 04:51 John, I think I could speak for you here where we testify that anyone who you have lost, anyone that you long to see again. John, both your parents have passed away. My father’s passed away. My brother has passed away. And we long to see them again. We know that because of Christ, we will see them again. So Easter changes a little bit, doesn’t it John, for when you have someone on the other side waiting for you?

John Bytheway: 05:18 That empty tomb is such a message of really victory. It’s so interesting to read the New Testament and see that they were so excited. Jesus came because a lot of them misunderstood. He’s going to deliver us from the Romans. Jesus was like, “No, we got tougher enemies like sin and death. I’m not only going to deliver you, I’m going to deliver the whole world from death and from sin.” That is a victory.

Hank Smith: 05:45 And that’s a beautiful victory that we get to experience as well. As we spoke of finding Christ in the Old Testament, but we can find Christ in our lives today. Our wonderful friend, Jamie, who works with us on the podcast, she said, “Oh, remember it’s not just Christ lived, it’s He lives.” We can find him today in our lives and in our future as we look forward to future reunions with loved ones who have passed away.

John Bytheway: 06:12 Like Jamie said, He’s not just the great I was, He is the great I am. For Him to call himself that is a present tense forever. I am. What a great name for Him to choose to tell Moses. I am.

Hank Smith: 06:26 You will be with your family and friends who have passed away and it will be a glorious, glorious day. It’s no wonder that Jacob in 2 Nephi 9 says, “Oh, how great the goodness of our God.” When I think, John, of seeing my brother and my father again and loved ones who have passed away, our good friend, Steve Sorensen, who is a huge part of our team on this podcast, when I think of those future moments, I kind of feel the same way Jacob did. Oh, the greatness of our God. His plan, His goodness. I want to sing His praises.

John Bytheway: 06:59 Those reunions will be so sweet. I can’t even imagine it now, but it’s going to be so wonderful. All because of the Savior.

Hank Smith: 07:07 All because of Him. So, happy Easter from all of us at followHIM to you and your family. We hope you’ll join us for our podcast for the rest of this year as we dive into the Old Testament. But if not, you can always find us exactly right here next week for followHIM Favorites.