Read the article or click on the picture for the video!
From the title it is easy to determine/predict this is a story of when Jesus is in the Old Testament. There clearly times when Jesus actually appears in the Old Testament, but that is a story for another time- in my third book in fact. I am doing research now for that subject. Here though, I am writing about several of the very specific- important- times when the Old Testament refers to Jesus, His character and His impact, but His appearance is not actually described. Of course, the Second Coming of Jesus is clearly specified in Revelation 19:11- which is in the New Testament. However, there are more than 300 times in the Old Testament where it predicts the Second Coming. I am going to relate five specific times when there is evidence of dynamic references to Jesus, His life, and prediction of His vital relationship to God’s overall plan. This is called “theophany”.
- FIRST GOSPEL FOR JESUS
GENESIS 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspringand hers; He will crushyour head, and you will strike His heel.”
Traditionally, the second part of this verse is called the “protoevangelium”, the first gospel. Because it outlines the defeat of the serpent, God’s enemy, who, through deception and temptation, led mankind to sin and rebel against God. God’s plans are revealed progressively in the Bible. The book of Genesis provides several prophecies about a Messiah, including details about his bloodline. In Genesis 22:18, for example, there is a prophecy that Abraham’s seed, or offspring, depending on the English translation, would become a blessing to people throughout the world. Genesis 3:15 is part of God’s judgment of Adam, Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:8-19).
Therefore, we have in Genesis 3:15, the first promise of a Redeemer. It is the long line of prophecies concerning the coming Messiah. The Promised One would be from the woman’s seed an indication of the eventual virgin birth of Christ. The head of a serpent creeping on the ground is easily crushed and bruised, of which it is sensible, and therefore it is careful to hide and cover it. The seed of the serpent would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. On the cross Satan bruised the heel of Christ, causing His death. Bruising suggests something that was not ultimate or final. Christ died on our behalf being made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). He bore our judgment upon Calvary’s cross and, in doing so, bruised His heel. Though wounded, the damage done to Jesus was not final, for He came back from the dead three days later. The phrase seed of the serpent also has various explanations. It does not mean the physical descendants of the Devil but rather those who are his spiritual descendants. There is no indication that Satan ever had any physical offspring. Some feel seed of the serpent speaks of unredeemed humanity beginning with Adam and Eve’s first son Cain and continuing on to all those who oppose God. Jesus called the religious leaders of his day the children of the Devil (John 8:44).There is also the view that the seed of the serpent refers to the creatures who have fallen like Satan. These include demons and fallen angels. The seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head indicating Satan’s ultimate defeat.
This has different aspects:
The first stage of the Devil’s defeat was at the cross. It was there where Satan was initially defeated. Jesus said: Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out (John 12:31).When Christ eventually returns to the earth, He will bind Satan and place him in the pit (Revelation 20:1-4). Eventually Satan will be cast into the lake of fire along with those who followed him (Revelation 20:7-10). Scripture looks forward to the day when the serpent’s head will be crushed.
- PASSOVER LAMB
EXODUS 12:12-13 12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”
God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” That is the death that has been sentenced upon man. He’s going to pass over me. I’ll not die, but I will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, into the glorious likeness of Jesus Christ. Whom, having not seen, yet I love. Even though I don’t see Him yet, in my heart I rejoice with a joy unspeakable, and full of glory because even though I am now a son of God, I don’t know for sure yet what I’m going to be, all of the full capacities and everything else. But I know that when He appears, I’m going to be like Him. For I’m going to see Him as He is, conformed into His image.
Oh, how glorious is the hope of every child of God, who by faith follows the command of God, and who has received the sacrifice of God, God’s lamb Jesus Christ, and has received the covering of Jesus Christ, and his sins have been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. So in Exodus we have God laying out the Passover lamb, which is a type of the Lamb of God. For Jesus it was the night in which He had the Passover supper with His disciples, that He took the Passover elements and said, “Hey this is Me, this is Me don’t you understand? It’s Me. I’m the Passover Lamb. This cup is a new covenant; it’s in My blood.” No longer the lamb in Egypt and the blood of the lamb in Egypt. No longer does this feast carry you clear back to Egypt. This feast now carries you back to the cross of Jesus Christ. And as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord’s death, not the death of the lamb in Egypt, but the death of the Lamb of God. You do show the Lord’s death until He comes. So, the feast was inaugurated, but it was inaugurated to remind, yes, but also to look forward to the fulfillment of what that lamb in Egypt typified, the Lamb of God slain for our sins.
- BRONZE SERPENT
NUMBERS 21:8-9 8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they would live.
This is a very interesting story. So, God’s people are yet again rebelling against God and what’s happening is there’s basically a curse among God’s people and they are all getting bit by snakes and dying. And as a result of these fiery serpents among the people, God says, “Hey, take this pole, put an image of a fiery serpent on it and whenever people are bitten if they look at this then they’ll be able to live.”
We find life by looking to a picture of death. Jesus went to the cross to bear our sins and die the death we deserve. Only in Him do we find life.
So, I’m putting myself in the shoes of Israelities at this point, who are being bitten by fiery serpents. The last thing I want to look to is a fiery serpent in order to live. But this symbol, this picture of death actually becomes a symbol, a picture of deliverance. So, you find life in looking to a picture that symbolizes death. And in this the stage is set for Jesus to say in John 3:14 “just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert. So, the son of man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Think about it. How do you and I have eternal life? By looking where? To Jesus’s death on a cross.
In Numbers 21, the people again got discouraged, and in their unbelief they murmured against Moses for bringing them into the wilderness. They had already forgotten that it was their own sin that caused them to be there, and the tried to blame Moses for it. As a judgment against the people for their sin, God sent poisonous serpents into the camp, and people began to die. This showed the people that they were the ones in sin, and they came to Moses to confess that sin and ask for God’s mercy. When Moses prayed for the people, God instructed him to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole so the people could be healed (Numbers 21:5-7).
God was teaching the people something about faith. It is totally illogical to think that looking at a bronze image could heal anyone from snakebite, but that is exactly what God told them to do. It took an act of faith in God’s plan for anyone to be healed, and the serpent on the stick was a reminder of their sin which brought about their suffering. There is no connection between this serpent and the serpent which Satan spoke through in the Garden of Eden. This serpent was symbolic of the serpents God used to chastise the people for their unbelief.
A couple of additional lessons are taught in the Bible regarding this bronze serpent. The people did get healed when they looked at the serpent, and the image was kept for many years. Many years later, when the Israelites were in the Promised Land, the serpent became an object of worship (2 Kings 18:4). This shows how easy it is for us to take the things of God and twist them into idolatry. We must never worship the tools or the people God chooses to use, but always bring the honor and glory to God alone.
The next reference we find in the Bible to this serpent is in John 3:14. Jesus indicated that this bronze serpent was a foreshadowing of Him. The serpent, a symbol of sin and judgment, was lifted up from the earth and put on a tree, which was a symbol of a curse (Galatians 3:13). The serpent lifted up and cursed symbolized Jesus, who takes away sin from everyone who would look to Him in faith, just like the Israelites had to look to the upraised symbol in the wilderness. Paul is reminding the Galatians that Jesus became a curse for us, although He was blameless and sinless—the spotless Lamb of God. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
- FORSAKEN SAVIOR
PSALM 22:1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
All Scripture is inspired by God but some passages cause us to take off our shoes from off our feet for the content they communicate is most holy and precious. It was David that was caused to pen these prophetic words, which were uttered by our Savior on the cross, when He bore the sin of the world in His body on the Tree. No matter what caused David to pen this Psalm, we remember the solemn event, which it foreshadowed. For three long hours’ time embraced eternity. as the world was plunged into a thick darkness. Heaven was hushed and time stood still – and God turned His face away from the Son of His love, in Whom He was well pleased.
For the three of the blackest hours in human history the eternal Son of God was separated from His Father in heaven as He was made sin on our account. My God my God why hast Thou forsaken me? was the question He screamed – and these poignant words must have reverberated throughout an astonished universe. The curse of the Law sliced though His spirit, soul and body as He drank the bitter cup that would provide such blessing for all who were born under the curse of the Law. For all who believe on Him, by grace through faith, would be reconciled to God; become eternally saved and forever forgiven, by means of the astonishing atoning sacrifice that Christ made on that singular day.
Why did God forsake the Son of His love? Why did His heavenly Father turn His back on His only begotten Son in Whom He delighted? Why should God the Son suffer the concentrated horror of those three eternal hours. Well scripture gives us the answer: God is just and He is holy and sin must be punished. Every sin and all sin had to be punished. The price of death for every broken law has to be paid in full. And the sinless Lord Jesus, Who is God in the flesh, took upon Himself every sin we committed and every violation of God’s perfect Law – together with the inherent sin we received from our forefathers and the inherited sin nature we received as part of Adam’s fallen race.
Christ voluntarily took upon Himself the responsibility of paying the price for all our sin (committed sins, inherent sin and the inherited sin nature) and God laid on HIM the iniquity of the world. How shocking that the truth of the glorious gospel has been so watered down by Christendom in order to make it palatable to seeker-friendly churches. How shocking that so many legalists do not consider that Christ’s sacrificial death was sufficient – and insist that we have to add our own works to His finished work on the cross. How shocking that the vast majority of humanity have refused to hear and receive the glorious gospel of grace.
The debt we owe our Savior should be a never-ending stream of grateful love that floods through our heart and soul, knowing that He was made sin on our account so that we could be made the righteousness of God in Him. It was for our sake that He was forsaken, and it was US that he was forced to cry out: My God my God why hast Thou forsaken Me? so that by faith in Him we might never be forsaken but united with Him forever.
- SUFFERING SAVIOR
ISAIAH 53:5-6 “5But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him t0he iniquity of us all.”
But, in fact, He was suffering not for His own transgressions but for our transgressions, says Isaiah. The punishment the servant endured would bring the people peace, peace with God. By his wounds we are healed (forgiven). Out of the servant’s suffering and death would come blessing and salvation for the people (see 1 Peter 2:24). Isaiah even prophesies that the servant would be pierced (see Psalm 22:16; Zechariah 12:10); Jesus was pierced as He hung on the cross (John 19:34).
We all, like sheep, have gone astray; we haven’t merely become lost, we have turned to our own way. All of us are guilty of willfulness and rebellion against God. Yet God has punished His servant in place of us; God has laid on him the iniquity of us all (see 1 Peter 2:24-25). And the servant (Jesus)s carried our sins away, just as the scapegoat carried away the Israelites’ sins on the Day of Atonement.
This verse is at the heart of the Gospel—indeed of the entire Bible. It begins with the condemnation of all and it ends with the salvation of all—all who believe. Christ died in our place, He died for our sins, He died for us all—for every man and woman on earth who comes to Him in faith and asks Him to take away their sin. For all of us who have trusted Christ as Savior these poignant words can pierce our own hearts, as we begin to understand that the sinless Son of God was willingly afflicted; bruised; pierced and crushed with wounds that we merit – dying a death that we deserve, as the burden of our sin was laid upon the sinless Son of Man – our kinsman- Redeemer.
The Lord Jesus suffered cruel treatment and gave-up His life willingly, so that all who believe on Him might not perish but be given peace with God, and have His inner peace guarding our hearts: for by His stripes, we are healed – not a healing of the body but an everlasting healing of the spirit. and the forgiveness of sins. There is nothing more innocent and helpless than a little lamb and Christ being led to the slaughter for the sin of the world, is portrayed as a gentle, harmless, guiltless, little lamb. But there is nothing more dim-witted, empty-headed and gullible than sheep, and we who are the sheep of His pasture are likened to stupid, straying sheep.
In Summary, Jesus, Himself, showed the importance of using thoughts and Scripture from the Old Testament. On the day of His resurrection on the road to Emmaus, Jesus came upon two followers, both who did not recognize Him. They listened to “this stranger”, invited Him to eat with them, and as Jesus prayed to them Father- they recognized Jesus. They stated that their hearts burned from the Scriptures that Jesus told them. Remember New Testament Scriptures had yet to be formed and written. So, Jesus used Old Testament Scripture that burned their hearts. Their reaction is recorded by Luke.
LUKE 24:29-34 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is
nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So, he went in to stay with
them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave
thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were
opened, and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their
sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within
us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to
us?” 33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they
found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and
saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”
JESUS WAS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT BOTH ACTUALLY AND IN SPIRIT.