The Strength of Weakness

2 Corinthians 1:8-9 - "For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead."

2 Corinthians 12:8-10 - "Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."

There are several paradoxes throughout Scripture. That is, there are statements throughout the Word of God that are contrary to our natural thinking, they don't make sense to the natural mind, and the very statements themselves are counter intuitive and they seem to be self-contradictory. But then again, we should probably expect that, for in Isaiah 55:8-9 we read - "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." When we look at some of the statements in the Word of God, humanly speaking, they don't make any sense at all. The Lord Jesus is especially good at making statements that seem backwards. In Matthew chapter 5 the Lord Jesus was correcting much of the faulty thinking of the religious system of His day, and in one of the things He says He directly contrasts mans thinking with Gods. In verse 43 He gives us the natural way of thinking - "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'" This is the natural mindset. We need to be nice to those who are nice to us and mean to those who are mean to us. But the Lord Jesus goes on in verse 44 to correct this teaching by saying something that's rather counter intuitive - "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." This is completely backwards to our natural thinking. How on earth am I supposed to love someone whose goal in life is to put me down and trample me underfoot? Nevertheless, this is the teaching of Christ. And this is also the example that He set, for while we were yet His enemies it was out of love that He died for us, as we read in Romans chapter 5. His death for us was the demonstration of love for those who were His enemies. And, consequently, this love of our enemies is something supernatural. If we are to obey this instruction of our Lord Jesus then He is going to have to work it out in us.

Matthew chapter 5 is not the only time that the Lord Jesus said something paradoxical. In Matthew 20:16 the Lord Jesus said - "the last shall be first, and the first last." And in Matthew 23:12 He says - "Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted." The natural mindset says that if I'm going to be first then I have to assert myself. I have to scramble up the ladder as fast as I can, and it doesn't matter who I step on on the way up. If I'm going to be exalted then I need to get out there and let everyone know how great I am and let them know why it is in their best interest to associate themselves with me. But the Lord Jesus says the very opposite. If you want to be first you have to be last. If you're going to be exalted then you must humble yourself. In Gods economy the way up is down and the way down is up. This is reiterated in Mark 9:35 when the Lord Jesus says - "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all."

In Mark chapter 8 and verse 35 the Lord makes another paradoxical statement saying - "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it." Again, this is contrary to our natural thinking. The natural mindset says if I want to save my life then I have to do everything that I possible can to preserve it. But the Lord Jesus says that the way to save it is to give it away.

So, the Lord Jesus makes several paradoxical statements. But the one I want to focus on is a statement that the Lord Jesus made to the apostle Paul and the apostles answer as recorded here in the later chapters of 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, the verses that we started with, the Lord Jesus said to Paul - “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is perfected in weakness.” And the apostle Paul confirms, "For when I am weak, then I am strong."
In these later chapters of Second Corinthians weakness becomes a repeated theme. Weakness is not something that we like to focus on. We like strength. If we were asked the question, Are you a strong person? we would like to be able to answer in the affirmative. Whether we're talking about physical strength, strength of character, a strong personality, strong willed, whatever area of life we're talking about, we would like to be considered strong. Strength is idealized and weakness is looked down on. Consequently you wouldn't prepare a resume' that lists your weaknesses. If you asked an employer what he was looking for in an employee, or a team manager what qualities he looked for when recruiting players, weakness is not going to make the list.

You don't often find people advertising about themselves that they are weak. But that's exactly what Paul is boasting about here in these last chapters of Second Corinthians. It's a strange thought that someone would boast about their weakness, those two words don't seem to fit together at all. Nevertheless, it seems that these two words, boasting and weakness, are used more often than any others from chapter 10 through chapter 12. And this is a strange idea, but have you ever considered the possibility that your limitations and handicaps may prove to be the key to your usefulness in the service of Christ? We all have weaknesses and limitations and we look at these things as hindrances in our service of Christ. "If I could just be like that person I would be far more useful. If only I talked a little bit less then maybe God could use me. If only I talked a little bit more then maybe I would be more useful." Whatever the case may be. When we consider our weaknesses, whether it is in regard to our health or our stature, our character or mannerisms, or whatever it might be, we often have the tendency to think, "if only I didn't have this weakness, this infirmity, this difficulty, then I could really be something for Christ." But have you ever considered that your limitations and your weaknesses may prove to be the key to your usefulness in the service of Christ?

Our weaknesses are not an accident. This is not something that has somehow slipped through Gods hands and now, if I only didn't have this certain weakness maybe I would be more useful. But even your weaknesses are part of Gods perfect plan for your life.

Consider your uniqueness. In Gods providential shaping of your life He has given you certain weaknesses on purpose. Perhaps if we truly understood this we would be able to say along with the apostle Paul "I am well content with weakness." Think about it, Psalm 139 tells us that God was intimately involved in our formation process. "For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them." As the Lord was forming us in the womb He saw the entire scope of our lives, from beginning to end. He knows the plans that He has for us. And in His providential knowledge He has made us exactly as we are.

This is something that I heard this past week concerning the uniqueness of each human being.

"In all the world there is nobody like you. Since the beginning of time there has never been another person like you. Nobody has your smile, your eyes, your hands, your hair, nobody owns your handwriting or your voice, nobody can paint your brush strokes. Nobody has your taste for food or music or art, nobody in the universe see things as you do. In all of time there has never been anyone who laughs in exactly your way. And what makes you laugh or cry or think may have a totally different response in another. You are different from every other person that has ever lived in the history of the universe. You are the only one in the whole creation who has your particular set of abilities. There is always someone who is better at one thing or another, every person is your superior in at least one way. But nobody in the universe can reach the quality of the combination of your talents, your feelings. throughout all of eternity no one will ever walk, talk, think, or do exactly like you. You are rare. And in all rarity there is enormous value, and because of your great value the need for you to imitate anyone else is absolutely wrong. You happen to be special. And it's no accident that you are. Please realize that God made you for a special purpose, and He has a job for you to do that no one else can do as well as you can. Out of the Billions of applicants only one is qualified. Only one has the unique combination of what it takes, and that one is you."

But even with this being true of us we can still find ourselves thinking that we would be better off if only something were different about us. If only I didn't have this limitation. If only I was stronger. If only I was this or that, as if somehow the Creator of the ends of the earth who redeemed me in the person of Christ and established my coming and going has for some reason taken His hand off of my life and something has crept in without His notice that is now hindering my life.

And when these kind of thoughts emerge Satan is quick to encourage us to doubt Gods goodness and work in our lives. When we are facing a particularly challenging time in our life, when we are up against some great weakness in ourselves, the evil one is quick to cast doubt upon the integrity of God and upon His love for us, and to suggest that the way out of this dilemma is to make sure that everybody knows how strong and capable we really are. We are careful not to let anyone in on the fact that we're really struggling.

But in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 Paul tells us about the challenges that he is facing. This is his testimony about where he is at this point in his life. Paul, why don't you give us a short testimony about your present Christian experience. "Okay," he says, "here it is summed up in five words," and it's found there in 2 Corinthians 12:10 - "Weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions and difficulties." You're not going to attract much of a crowd with that kind of talking, but this is the reality. And in order to help us understand what Paul understood, namely, the strength of weakness, it would be helpful for us to go back into the context of this passage to try and get the thought flow of what the apostle is saying.

One of the reasons that the apostle Paul wrote the letter of Second Corinthians, on a human level, was to answer some of his critics. Apparently there were several accusations being brought against him by some false teachers in Corinth, and as you read through the book, and especially these later chapters, you can put together a list of some of the things that were being said against Paul and his companions. And though he doesn't like doing it, Paul defends himself and his ministry, and he does it in a very skillful way.

I don't want to focus on these accusations, but I do want to mention them in passing. What were these false teachers saying about the apostle Paul? Going back to chapter 10 and verse 1 we can deduce that Paul and his companions were being charged with timidity. The way we figure out what the charges are is by hearing Paul's response to these things. So he says in chapter 10 and verse 1 - "Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent!" This is what people were saying about him. Secondly they were accusing him of being worldly and unspiritual, in verse 2 - "some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh." Third, he and his companions were being accused of being suspect members of the body of Christ. That's in verse 7. And fourthly and finally, in verse 12 they were basically regarded as second class citizens. Verse 12 - "For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding." Paul's accusers were basically setting themselves up as the standard and then comparing themselves to themselves. This would be like me saying that a golf swing is to be judged by my golf swing. Which makes it irrelevant how bad my golf swing is, because I've suddenly made myself the standard on golf swings. You see the utter foolishness in this. These people were not only writing their own resumes' they were also writing their own references, commending themselves.

And so in answer to his accusers, Paul goes on in verse 17 to establishing one fundamental truth.
10:17-18 - "But he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord. For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends." In other words, it's not what you say about yourself that matters, it's what God says about you that matters. It doesn't matter if we have anything good to say about ourselves, what matters is whether or not God has anything good to say about us. This is following the same line of thinking as Paul used in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 when he said "it is a very small thing to me that I may be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I don't even judge myself." Why is that? Because I'm not qualified to judge myself. The only one who is qualified to judge me is the Lord. And ultimately it doesn't matter if we have anything good to say about ourselves, what matters is whether or not He has anything good to say about us. 

Now in chapter 11 Paul decides to take his opponents on on their terms. That's why he says in verse 1 - "I hope that you will put up with me in a little foolishness." It's a foolish thing to boast, but since this is the way that the argument is unfolding, Paul is saying, why don't I go ahead and do a little boasting of my own.

Verse 16 - "Again I say, let no one think me foolish; but if you do, receive me even as foolish, so that I also may boast a little." It's a foolish idea to boast, so if you want to take me as a fool go ahead and do so, because these people are foolish in boasting about all this stuff so I'll go ahead and boast a little myself. He says in Verse 17 - I didn't learn this kind of speaking from Christ. But this is the kind of boastful speaking that was common among his accusers. What were they boasting about? First, Verse 22, They were boasting about their Jewishness. And secondly, Verse 23, they were boasting about their service for the Lord.

So Paul goes down this road and proceeds to give us an amazing list that points out for us the hammering that he has taken on account of Christ. Verse 23-29 - "Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?"
He gives us this whole list which is all about weakness and he concludes in verse 30 - "If I have to boast I will boast of my weakness." And then he goes on to give us an example of his weakness in verses 32-33 - "In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and so escaped his hands." This is phenomenal! Either Paul really needs some lessons in boasting, or he is one of the few people that really knows how to boast. I can just imagine Paul standing around with a bunch of guys who are boasting about how strong they are and how great they are and how much they've accomplished, and then Paul chimes in, "That's nothing. one time I was in the city of the Damascenes, the king had put out a death sentence on me, the gates of the city were being guarded and they were seeking my life." "Well, what did you do Paul?" "I'll tell you what I did. I crawled out through a hole in the wall, I had to get some of my buddies to lower me to the ground in a laundry basket, and then I ran for my life." Paul, what on earth are you doing? That's not a story you tell people, it's embarrassing. But he says, "Hey, if I'm going to boast let me boast of my weakness." And here he tells us the power of weakness. What Paul is making clear here is that for him, weakness is actually one of his greatest assets. 

There is a principle here that is foreign to us. We like to put up a front that says that we're completely fine, we don't have any weakness. But the embracing of weakness actually unites men and women. Who helps the person that's powerful? Nobody. "Can I give you a hand with that?" "No I'm fine. I've got it, I can handle it." But when you come across someone who recognizes their weakness there's no shortage of people to help. "Can you give me a hand with this?" And suddenly you're surrounded by people who are ready and willing to help. When there is expression of weakness there is support. But when there is no recognition of it, you're on your own.

At the beginning of chapter 12 Paul goes on to talk about his experience of being caught up to the third heaven. And this experience, in human terms, was worth bragging about, but he determined not to do so. That's what he says at the end of verse 5 - "I will not boast, except in regard to my weaknesses." We come out of a society which is completely absorbed with self-exaltation. And we are not immune to it in the body of Christ. And it's really an ugly thing. Think about it, there's nothing worse in a gathering of people than someone who constantly talks about himself. And any time I find myself shooting off my mouth about how great I am, boasting about who I am or what I've done, you can be sure of two things. Number one, that I've lost sight of the cross of Christ. And Number two, I've lost sight of my dependance on Him.

The devil will take even the experiences which the Lord has given us and try to turn them to evil. The Lord could use you to do a certain work, and then out of the blue thoughts start coming into your mind about how great you are. "Boy, that was a really great thing I just did. Imagine how great the church would be if it were full of people like me. What would God do without me." Oh, our thoughts may not go to this extreme, but this type of thinking is a real danger, and the devil will even take good experiences and situations where the Lord has used us, and try and turn these things into an opportunity for sin. So Paul says in Verse 7 - "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!" The thorn in the flesh was actually a gift from God. Even that satanic buffeting came through the hands of a loving God to keep Paul humble and to keep him useful. He asked the Lord three times to remove it from him and this is the Lords answer. Verse 9 - "And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." So, given the answer, Paul quits focusing on the handicap and begins focusing on the gift. The answer of the Lord Jesus didn't change Paul's pain, but it did change his perspective. And so he says in verse 10 - "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." I don't understand it, I don't necessarily like it, but I'm content with my weakness, because I know by faith that the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

Difficulties in the Christian life are inevitable, but they're also purposeful. God has a purpose in your pain, in your difficulties, in your trials, in your weaknesses. These things cause us to turn to Christ in child-like dependance. As I am weakened by my difficulties I am strengthened by Gods grace.

Whatever your greatest weakness is, it is possible that that very thing is your greatest asset in the service of Christ.

This is what we see time and again throughout the Word of God, isn't it? When the Lord calls Abraham and Sarah they're old, advanced in years, and Sarah is past the age of childbearing. We read that Abraham considered his own body as good as dead and we read of the deadness of Sarah's womb. And yet what did God say? "I will make you a great nation. One shall come forth from your own body and he shall be your heir. I will make you the father of a multitude of nations." Abraham and Sarah's weakness became the vehicle for Gods strength.

When the Lord called Moses from the burning bush, Moses focused on his own weakness. "I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." So Gods essentially says, "Great, you're going to be My mouthpiece."

We have a similar situation when the Lord calls Jeremiah. "Lord, I'm just a kid and I can't speak well." But God says, "you can't speak? Glad to hear it. You're going to be My prophet to the nations. Where I send you you will go, and what I tell you you will say." We can come up with all sorts of reasons why the Lord can't use us. But those things that we consider to be our greatest weaknesses may in fact be the very thing through which God will choose to show His strength.
In Isaiah chapter 40 it's the weak that receive strength. Isaiah 40:29-31 - "He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint." In 1 Corinthians 1:27 we're told that God has chosen the weak things to shame the strong. And in 2 Corinthians 4:7 we read that God has chosen to put His treasure in earthen vessels, old clay pots, so that it would be obvious that our strength is not our own. That the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not of ourselves. We ask ourselves, "Why do I have to be such an old clay pot?" Answer, so that it will be obvious that our strength is not our own.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 20 we read about a king by the name of Jehoshaphat. He received word that a coalition of armies was coming against Judah. It was a force that was far to powerful for the forces of Judah. So the king called the people together and they began to pray. And in his prayer, Jehoshaphat expresses his weakness. "Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on You." And through their weakness the Lord was able to show Himself strong.

In First Samuel chapter 30 we're told about a time of great weakness in the life of David. In the chapters leading up to this David had been running for his life from the hand of Saul. He went into the country of the Philistines and began to serve the Philistine king, the enemy of Israel. Eventually, the Philistines were going out to war against Israel and the Philistine commanders didn't trust David. They went to the king and asked "What are these Hebrews doing here?" They basically said, when we get into the battle, David and his men are going to remember their true allegiance and they'll turn against us. And they urged the king to send David away. Well, when David and his men come back to Ziklag, the city where they had taken up residence, they found that the Amalekites had come against the city, they had taken all their possessions, they took their wives and children captive, and they set the city on fire. So, king Saul is trying to kill David. The Philistines sent him away, his house was burned down, all his goods were stolen and his family was taken captive. This is what you call a bad day. And, if that weren't bad enough, Davids men began to speak of stoning him. Since he's the guy in charge it must be his fault, right? At this point David is intensely weak. We read that he and his men wept until they had no strength to weep. If crying shows weakness then what can we say about the person who doesn't even have the strength to cry? This was a time of great weakness in Davids life. But in the midst of all this we read "But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God." Davids weakness was the occasion for Gods strength.

On the flip side I just want to consider one negative example of this truth. If what we have been considering speaks of the strength of weakness, then 2 Chronicles chapter 26 gives us an example of  the weakness of strength. 2 Chronicles 26 records for us several events in the life of a king named Uzziah. And this man had a wonderful start. When he was young he sought the Lord, and the Lord marvelously blessed him. But sadly we read of him later on in his life, "Uzziah was marvelously helped until he became strong. But when he became strong his heart became proud, to his own destruction."

A servant girl in the east end of London applies to the missionary organization, and the missionary organization turns her down. "You're far too small." They say. "You're far too uneducated. You're really not what we're looking for." She returns to her bedroom, a small attic in an east London home, bemoaning the fact that her hair is so black and so straight. Why couldn't it be blonde like some of those others girls? And why couldn't she be at least a reasonable size? Why did she have to be so tiny? Turning her back on the advice of the missionary organization, trusting God, she takes her belongings, her bits and pieces, and she heads on her way, out and across the China Sea, and arrives in one of those great Chinese ports. And when she comes up on deck and she looks out at the crowds that have gathered on the seaside, a shiver went up her back. Because what did she gaze upon? All these tiny, little ladies, with jet black hair. God made her tiny, gave her jet back hair, so that she would be known for posterity. Gladys Aylward thought that her smallness and the straightness of her hair would be a detriment to usefulness. But God had fashioned her exactly in that way so that He could use her for His express purpose.

Have you ever considered that your weaknesses and limitations may actually be the key to your usefulness in the service of Christ?

2 Corinthians 12:9 - "And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is perfected in weakness.”"

Jesus in the Old Testament

Luke 24:27 - "And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

In Luke chapter 24, after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, two of His disciples were traveling to the city of Emmaus and as they traveled they were discussing the events of the past couple of days, their hopes that Jesus was the Messiah, His death and the reports of His resurrection, all these things were heavy on their hearts. As they traveled the Lord Jesus came and walked with them, but they didn't know it was Him. As He traveled and talked with them, verse 24 tells us - "And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." I know that this is a well known passage of Scripture, but I mention it simply because it tells us very plainly that the Lord Jesus is not just a New Testament character, He is actually found all throughout Scripture. Further on in the same chapter, in verses 44-45 we read - "Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures." The Lord Jesus makes it clear that the entire Old Testament, Law, Prophets and Psalms, is all about Him. He is the theme of the Bible.
We get this idea again in John chapter 5 when the Lord Jesus is talking to the Jews, a very religious people who knew the Old Testament pretty well. But Jesus says to them in verses 39-40 - "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life." The Lord Jesus says that the Old Testament talks about Him. He continues in John 5:46 saying - "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me." Jesus says that Moses wrote about Him. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the first five books of the Bible, were written by Moses and the Lord Jesus says that these books are about Him.

So, while we see the Lord Jesus very clearly in the New Testament, the Old Testament is full of pictures and prophecies of the Lord Jesus. A lot of the pictures of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament are hard to see until you look at them through the lens of the New Testament. In other words, when we take what we already know about the Lord Jesus from the New Testament and look at the Old Testament in light of that we can see Him more clearly in the Old Testament.

In 1 Peter 1:10-12 we read - "As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look." This is an interesting passage. Here we’re told that even those who wrote the Old Testament didn’t necessarily understand what they were writing about. It says that they were seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ was indicating as He wrote through them. When the Old Testament was written someone didn’t just come along and write something down that they thought sounded good or that they thought might be what God was like, but the Bible is inspired by God, God breathed it out. And in 2 Peter chapter 1 we’re told that no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Spirit spoke from God. Moses and the prophets were just instruments in Gods hand to write His Word. So in the Old Testament God was telling us about the Lord Jesus, and many of the things that He told us, the men He used to write them down didn’t even understand. But now that Christ has come, looking back we can see that the Old Testament was pointing to and picturing Jesus.

It's kind of like a hidden picture book with the answers at the back of the book. I don't know if you're familiar with the "Where's Waldo" books, but on each page you have a gigantic crowd of people and you are supposed to find Waldo in each one. Sometimes it's kind of hard so they show you where he is in the answers at the back of the book. Well the Bible is similar to that. The Lord Jesus is all throughout the Old Testament, but sometimes we have to go to the back of the book and look through the scope of the New Testament in order to find Him.

In Acts chapter 8 Philip was sent into the desert by the Holy Spirit. When he obeyed and went there was a man sitting in a chariot reading the prophet Isaiah, and Philip asked him "Do you understand what you are reading?" The man responded by saying "How can I unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. And we read in verse 32 - "Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: “He was led as a sheep to slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He does not open His mouth. In humiliation His judgment was taken away; Who will relate His generation? For His life is removed from the earth.” The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?”" And verse 35 says - "Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him." This man was reading the Old Testament but he couldn’t understand it. He was looking at an Old Testament prophecy concerning Christs sufferings, but it didn't make sense to him because he didn't know what he was looking at. So Philip comes along and looks at this Old Testament passage in light of what He already knew about the Lord Jesus, and he was able to show this man Jesus in the Old Testament. Beginning with Isaiah 53 he began preaching Jesus to him.

In Exodus 17 the children of Israel were in the wilderness without any water and the Lord told Moses to strike a rock in order that water might come out for the people to drink. So where is the Lord Jesus in this passage? The rock that was struck is a picture of Christ, and it pictures for us a spiritual truth. The rock had to be struck in order that it might bring forth water so that the people who were complaining against the Lord, these sinners, might have life. When the Lord Jesus was on the cross they pierced His side with a spear, and blood and water came out. In John chapter 4 the Lord Jesus said that He gives living water that those who come to Him to drink might not thirst anymore. Now He clarified that He was not talking about a physical thirst, it doesn’t mean that when you’re saved you’ll never have to drink water again, no, He was saying that He provides the water of life, eternal life. If we go for long enough without drinking water we’ll die of thirst. And in the same way if we do not come to the Lord Jesus for living water we will be separated from him forever in everlasting death. But if we believe in Him we will be filled with fountains of living water. Well, this is a nice idea but it’s kind of a stretch, isn’t it? I mean, how do we know that this rock in Exodus 17 is a picture of the Lord Jesus? We want to make sure that we’re not just making stuff up and throwing it in the Bible. If we're not careful we can start putting stuff in the Bible that isn't there and come up with wrong ideas about what the Bible teaches because we're becoming to fanciful in our interpretation. So what about this rock in Exodus 17? Is this really a picture of Christ or not? Well, if we look at the passage through the lens of 1 Corinthians 10, the apostle Paul is talking about the people of Israel in the wilderness and drinking the water from the rock, and he says in verse 4 - "This Rock was Christ." So in the New Testament we’re expressly told that the rock from which they were drinking is a picture of Christ.

Another example of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament is found in Numbers chapter 21. This is the account when the children of Israel were sinning against the Lord and as a result He sent fiery serpents into the camp of Israel to bite the people. However, He also provided a way of life. He told Moses to make a serpent of bronze and lift it up on a pole in the center of the camp, and He said that anyone who was bitten simply needed to look to the serpent and they would live. Where is the Lord Jesus in this story? It's kind of a strange account, but if it were not for John chapter 3 we would not know that the serpent on the pole is actually a picture of the Lord Jesus.Two verses before the most famous verse in the Bible, the Lord Jesus says - "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life." And it's after pointing back to this account in Numbers 21 that the Lord Jesus goes on to say - "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
And there are many other examples to which we could look. But in considering the various names and titles of the Lord Jesus we'll find that many of them point back to the Old Testament, and seeing the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament will open our understanding of Him and help us to know Him more.

Luke 24:27 - "And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."