I had hoped to start posting these at the beginning of the Old Testament year. But other projects took precedence. So, I’m starting now. You’ll note that there will be posts related to each weekly Come Follow Me lesson. And, since I’m playing catch up, there will be additional posts during the week related to lessons from past months.

Most Latter-day Saint adults will admit, if pressed, that the Old Testament is the scripture they feel least equipped to read. They love the Book of Mormon. They find the New Testament accessible. They return to the Doctrine and Covenants for practical guidance. But the Old Testament—with its genealogies, its livestock regulations, its violent battles, its God who seems to behave differently than the God they know—sits at the back of the canon like a relative everyone respects in the abstract but nobody quite knows how to talk to.

If that description fits your experience, this series is for you. And here is its central promise: the difficulty you feel when reading the Old Testament is not evidence that something is wrong with you or with the text.

It is evidence that you are reading it without its operating manual.

This series is the operating manual.