I See Jesus - Hardback

I See Jesus — Spotting the Shadows of Jesus on Every Page of the Bible

The Old Testament is full of shadows.

Not dark shadows — but the kind of shadows that tell you something important is coming. The kind of shadows that, when you look at them carefully and honestly, have a shape that is unmistakably familiar. The kind of shadows that appear in every kind of story — in the sweeping narratives of Israel’s history, in the intimate poetry of the Psalms, in the searching visions of the prophets, in the detailed regulations of the law — and that point, again and again, from every direction and in every kind of writing, to the one person who casts them all.

And when we look at these shadows, we can see something that looks a lot like Jesus.

I See Jesus is a beautifully illustrated children’s book that helps young readers do exactly what its title says — see Jesus. Not just in the Gospels where he walks and talks and heals and dies and rises. But on every page of the Bible. In the stories they know well and in the stories they are still discovering. In the shadows that the Old Testament casts — shadows of a Lamb, a Lion, a Shepherd, a King, a Saviour, a Priest, a Prophet — that have been pointing to him since the very first page of Scripture.

This is one of the most important and most enriching reading skills any young Christian can develop. And I See Jesus is a beautiful, accessible, and genuinely exciting introduction to it — one that will transform the way children read, enjoy, and treasure the whole of God’s Word.

What Are the Shadows?

The idea that the Old Testament is full of shadows of Jesus is not a clever reading technique invented by later interpreters. It is not a theological system imposed on the text from outside. It is the way Jesus himself read his Bible — and the way he taught his disciples to read it.

On the road to Emmaus, the risen Jesus walked with two disciples who were grieving the apparent failure of everything they had hoped for. And as they walked, he did something extraordinary: beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. He showed them that his suffering and his glory were not a contradiction of what the Old Testament promised — they were its fulfilment. That every story, every prophecy, every type and shadow had been pointing, all along, to exactly what had just happened.

The writer to the Hebrews picks up the same theme — describing the Old Testament law as containing a shadow of the good things to come. The apostle Paul tells the Colossians that the religious observances of the Old Testament were shadows — and that the substance, the reality to which they all pointed, belongs to Christ.

The Old Testament is deliberately, intentionally, divinely structured to cast shadows that point forward to Jesus. Every sacrifice pointed to the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Every king from the line of David pointed to the Son of David who would reign forever. Every deliverer — Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, David, and the rest — pointed to the one great deliverer who would accomplish what none of them could fully or finally achieve.

I See Jesus helps children begin to see these shadows — to develop the joyful, Scripture-enriching, genuinely transforming habit of reading the Old Testament with eyes that are looking for Jesus and finding him everywhere they look.

Who Jesus Is Revealed to Be

As children journey through the pages of I See Jesus, they will encounter a richly varied and genuinely beautiful portrait of who Jesus is — seen through the different shadows the Old Testament casts across its many stories and books. Each shadow illuminates a different dimension of his person and his work. Each story adds another angle to the portrait. Together they build in young readers something that no single Gospel passage could build alone: a comprehensive, multi-dimensional, deeply personal vision of who Jesus truly is.

God’s Lamb From the very first sacrifice in the garden of Eden — where God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins, covering their shame at the cost of an animal’s life — to the Passover lamb in Egypt whose blood on the doorposts brought deliverance to Israel, to the sacrificial system of the tabernacle and the temple where lambs were offered morning and evening for the sins of the people — the Old Testament is saturated with the image of a lamb whose blood covers sin and brings deliverance.

Every one of those lambs was a shadow. The substance — the reality they were all pointing to, the thing that gave every sacrifice its ultimate meaning — is Jesus. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The one John the Baptist pointed to when he saw Jesus coming toward him by the Jordan River. The one the book of Revelation describes as the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world, standing at the centre of the throne of God, worthy to receive all honour and glory and praise.

The Lion of Judah But Jesus is not only the Lamb. He is also the Lion — the royal, powerful, conquering dimension of who he is that the Old Testament shadows in a different way.

From Jacob’s blessing of his son Judah in Genesis 49 — where he describes Judah as a lion’s cub, a ruler from whose line the sceptre would never depart — through the great royal psalms that celebrate the king from David’s line, through the prophetic vision of a Branch from Jesse’s root who would judge with righteousness and rule with justice — the Old Testament builds a picture of a coming King whose authority is absolute, whose reign is just, and whose kingdom will have no end.

Jesus is that King. The Lion of Judah. The Son of David. The one who rides out in righteousness to judge and make war, whose name is King of kings and Lord of lords. The one who is simultaneously the Lamb who was slain and the Lion who conquers — two images that seem contradictory until you see that the cross and the resurrection, the sacrifice and the victory, are not opposites but two dimensions of the same extraordinary act.

Saviour of the World Every act of salvation in the Old Testament is a shadow of the ultimate salvation that Jesus accomplishes.

The rescue of Noah and his family from the flood. The deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. The protection of Rahab and her family when Jericho fell. The salvation of Jerusalem from the Assyrian army in the days of Hezekiah. The return of the exiles from Babylon. Each of these rescues is real and specific and historically significant. And each of them is a shadow — pointing forward to the one who would accomplish not just the rescue of one family or one nation from one particular danger, but the rescue of the whole world from the deepest danger of all.

Not just for Israel. For the world. For every person from every nation, every background, every century — who comes to him and finds in him the Saviour they did not know they were looking for. The one through whom the nations will be blessed, as God promised Abraham. The one to whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess. The Saviour of the world.

And So Much More The book explores the many other dimensions of who Jesus is that the Old Testament shadows reveal — building a portrait that is as rich and as varied as the Old Testament itself:

The great High Priest — who enters the holy of holies not with the blood of animals but with his own blood, securing an eternal redemption for his people. The perfect Prophet — through whom God speaks his final and definitive word, surpassing Moses and all the prophets who came before. The suffering Servant — whose wounds bring healing, whose punishment brings peace, who bears the sins of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. The Good Shepherd — who seeks the lost sheep, who knows his flock by name, who lays down his life for them. The true Vine — in whom his people must remain if they are to bear fruit that lasts.

Each shadow adds another dimension to the portrait. Each story adds another angle to the picture. And together they build in young readers a genuinely comprehensive and genuinely beautiful vision of who Jesus is — the one to whom every shadow in the Old Testament was always pointing.

A Book for Young Discoverers

One of the great joys of I See Jesus is the sense of discovery it cultivates in young readers.

There is something genuinely exciting about learning to see what you could not see before. Children who have heard the story of Abraham and Isaac many times will encounter it in a new way when they begin to see the shadow of the Son who would be offered on another hill, centuries later, by another Father who this time would not hold back his hand. Children who have enjoyed the story of Moses leading Israel through the Red Sea will encounter it with fresh eyes when they begin to see the shadow of the one who leads his people through the waters of death and out the other side into new life.

This is not reading too much into the text. It is reading the text the way Jesus himself read it — the way the New Testament consistently reads it — with eyes that are open to the shapes the shadows cast and the direction they point.

And for children who develop this habit early, the whole Bible becomes richer. Every story becomes more interesting. Every return to a familiar passage yields new discoveries. And the portrait of Jesus that emerges from the whole of Scripture — built up shadow by shadow, story by story, image by image — becomes more wonderful and more personally compelling with every reading.

What This Book Will Help Your Child Do

• Develop the habit of reading the Old Testament with eyes that look for Jesus — the single most important and most enriching reading skill a young Christian can cultivate from the earliest years
• Encounter a richly varied portrait of who Jesus is — seen through the shadows the Old Testament casts in stories both familiar and unfamiliar, building a comprehensive and deeply personal understanding of his identity
• Understand the unity of the whole Bible — that the Old Testament and the New Testament are not two separate books with two separate messages but one unified story with one central character moving toward one glorious conclusion
• Discover Jesus as God’s Lamb, the Lion of Judah, the Saviour of the World, the Good Shepherd, the true Prophet, the great High Priest, and much more — each shadow adding a new dimension to the portrait
• Be genuinely excited about the Old Testament — seeing it not as a collection of ancient religious stories with no connection to the Jesus they know and love, but as a book full of shadows that make him more visible, more wonderful, and more personally significant on every page
• Build the kind of lasting, imaginatively rich, theologically deep engagement with the whole of Scripture that begins with the joyful discovery of Jesus in unexpected places and never stops growing throughout a lifetime of Bible reading

Who Should Use This Book?

I See Jesus is ideal for:

• Parents wanting to help their children develop the habit of reading the whole Bible as one unified, Christ-centred story from the earliest years — laying the theological foundations that will serve them for a lifetime
• Families wanting a beautifully illustrated, theologically rich storybook that opens up the connection between the Old and New Testaments in a way that is genuinely exciting and genuinely accessible for young readers
• Grandparents looking for a meaningful, gospel-centred gift that gives grandchildren a fresh and genuinely enriching way of seeing Jesus throughout the whole of Scripture
• Sunday school teachers and children’s ministry workers wanting a high-quality illustrated resource that helps children understand how the Old Testament consistently points to Jesus — and that makes that truth genuinely exciting rather than merely theoretical
• Home-educating families wanting to incorporate biblical theology and whole-Bible thinking into their curriculum through beautifully crafted, theologically faithful children’s literature
• Churches wanting to resource families with a visually excellent, doctrinally sound children’s book that introduces young readers to the shadows of Jesus throughout the Bible and helps them read the whole of Scripture with Christ at the centre
• Any family in India wanting to give their children a beautiful, accessible, and genuinely enriching introduction to the most important reading skill in all of biblical interpretation — seeing Jesus everywhere the Bible casts his shadow

Also Worth Exploring

If your child enjoys I See Jesus, these related titles available at forthetruth.in will take them further in the same direction:

• Jesus Moments: David — helping children see specifically how David’s story points to Jesus
• Jesus Moments: Moses — helping children see specifically how Moses’ story points to Jesus
• Does the Old Testament Really Point to Jesus? — a clear, accessible booklet for older readers and adults
• The Big Picture Story Bible — tracing the whole Bible story from Genesis to Revelation with Jesus at the centre

The Shadow and the Substance

A shadow is not the thing itself. But it tells you the thing is coming. It has the shape of what is on the way. And when the thing itself arrives — when the shadow’s source steps into full and glorious view — everything the shadow was hinting at becomes suddenly, brilliantly, permanently clear.

The Old Testament is full of shadows. And every single one of them — every lamb and every king, every deliverer and every priest, every sacrifice and every promise and every prophetic vision — is the shadow of the same person. The one who was always coming. The one the whole story was always about. The one who stepped out of shadow and into history on the night when a baby cried in a stable in Bethlehem.

His name is Jesus. And once you know how to look, you can see him everywhere.

I See Jesus is an invitation to every child who opens it to look at the shadows — to look carefully, to look joyfully, to look with the growing conviction that the whole of God’s Word has been pointing to the same person all along — and to see, in every one of those shadows, the unmistakable, beautiful, endlessly wonderful shape of the one who casts them all.