Nell O’Leary joined Chad Bird to discover more about him and what we can expect from his highly anticipated seminar for the Word on Fire Institute.
Chad is a scholar in residence with the nonprofit organization 1517. He has served as a pastor, professor, and guest lecturer in Old Testament theology and Hebrew. He holds master’s degrees from Concordia Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College. Chad has authored multiple books and has contributed articles to Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, Modern Reformation, The Federalist, Lutheran Forum, and other journals and websites.
Nell O’Leary: Thanks for taking the time to chat with me, Chad. We’re thrilled about your upcoming seminar, The Evangelical Power of the Old Testament, on May 12–14 for the Word on Fire Institute. Can you share a little about yourself, your background, and your family, and what a day in the life of an evangelist looks like for you?
Chad Bird: The Old Testament grabbed hold of me even in childhood. I couldn’t get enough of sling-wielding David or daring Joshua marching around the walls of Jericho. Later, with Greek and Hebrew under my belt through graduate studies, I revisited all these ancient stories to discover how contemporary and crucial they are to our ongoing spiritual formation. Today, as a scholar in residence at 1517, my hours are spent podcasting, speaking, teaching, and writing about the Gospel with an Old Testament accent. My goal is to help people explore from Genesis to Revelation not as isolated books or a religious mishmash of unrelated stories but as a cohesive salvation narrative that begins and ends with a laser-like focus on Christ. My parents taught me to love the Bible; my professors at Hebrew Union College deepened my grasp of the multilayered nature of the Word of God; and my wife, Stacy, along with our four children and three grandchildren, continue to motivate me to live and serve as a baptized child of God who is shaped by Holy Scripture.
For this seminar, you’re speaking for three days about the Old Testament, a topic you’re an expert on, but you’ll address three distinct subjects: Christology, suffering, and Jacob. Can you share a little about why these subjects are of interest to both you and our members?
For far too long, I held a truncated view of Christ in the Bible, as if all through the Old Testament, Jesus was twiddling his thumbs in heaven, counting the days until he could finally visit our world in the Incarnation. God especially used the Fathers of the Church to open my eyes to the pervasive presence of Christ in the Old Testament, where he appeared as the Messenger, Word, Wisdom, Glory, and more. Helping others see this rich Christology is a true joy. These same Scriptures, especially Job and the Psalms, have also been a balm to my soul through dark and dreadful seasons of loss and grief, especially the death of our son. I learned the language of lament through the untamed prayers of the Psalms. And Jacob? Who can’t be both drawn to and repulsed by this clever and conniving patriarch? He embodies the worst tendencies of all of us and yet is chosen and beloved by the God of all grace and mercy.
Often we stick closely to the Gospels because they’re the most familiar and maybe the most accessible. We hear people talk about a difference between the “Old Testament God” who is all about punishment and the “New Testament God” who is all about love. How do you recommend people begin to understand the Old Testament—especially those of us without theology backgrounds or degrees?
The Son of God we meet in the Gospels, calling prideful Pharisees to repent and inviting the humble downtrodden to find rest in him, is the same God we meet on the pages of the Old Testament. He helps Hagar, the pregnant runaway servant of Sarah; feeds his people manna in the wilderness and slakes their thirst from a rock; sends prophets to call his stiff-necked people to return to him; forgives and rescues Israel times without number; and delights not in the sinner’s destruction but his repentance and life. By immersing ourselves in these narratives of judgment and salvation, we begin to see that humanity has not changed and, much more importantly, neither has the heart of our Father—the heart fully on display in the ministry of Jesus. Just like we get to know our favorite movie, its plots and subplots, major and minor characters, by watching and rewatching it, so it is with the “movie” of the Bible. It is God’s cinematic narrative that reveals his consistent desire to dwell with us, envelop us with his mercy, and use us in this world as evangelists for his kingdom.
We are called to be good stewards of our scars as we show compassion to those suffering around us.
Suffering is a universal experience, and you have written extensively about Jacob and his suffering. But part and parcel to that wrestling is the desire to have God show us his plan, his way, and his reasoning. We sit in the mystery of his divine will and how it unfolds in our lives. Do you have any advice or words for those who are wrestling with the suffering God has allowed in their lives at this time?
As worshipers of the crucified Son of God, Christians uniquely understand that all our sufferings receive their ultimate meaning and purpose only on his cross. God himself enters fully and freely into our sufferings, branding them his own; through his suffering and resurrection, he suffuses our suffering with hope. All our questions of “Why?” are taken up in Christ’s cry from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps. 22:1). Suffering is not a puzzle to be solved but a cross to bear—one that plants us within the redemptive wounds of Jesus. We find that suffering makes us less that there might be more room for Jesus in us. Simultaneously, we discover, with Jacob, that as we limp away from our wrestling matches with God, we are given a sacred trust: We are called to be good stewards of our scars as we show compassion to those suffering around us. In that way, our Father, in conforming us more and more to the image of his Son, images his Son to those around us through our service of love.