On the road to Emmaus, two disciples walked with a man they did not recognize. Luke 24:27 says that beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Jesus taught the Old Testament as being about himself. Carry one question into every passage: what does this show me about him?
That is Jesus teaching a Bible study about himself, from the Old Testament, before the New Testament existed. It tells us something enormous about how to read: the whole book is pointing somewhere, and it is pointing at him.
Once you know that, the Old Testament stops being a warm up act.
In Genesis there is a promised seed who will crush the serpent. In Exodus there is a lamb whose blood means death passes over a household. In Leviticus there is a system of sacrifice that names the problem exactly, that sin costs a life. In Joshua there is a leader who brings a people into a rest they could not take on their own. In Ruth there is a kinsman redeemer with both the right and the willingness to buy back what was lost. In the Psalms there is a suffering king. In Isaiah there is a servant wounded for our transgressions.
None of that is forced. It is the shape of the book.
This is why reading the Old Testament is not homework you do to earn the good part. It is where the picture gets drawn, slowly, in a hundred different ways, so that when Jesus finally steps into the frame you recognize him.
Here is a question worth carrying into every passage this year. What does this show me about him?
Ask it in Numbers. Ask it in Amos. You will be surprised how often it answers.