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."
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