The entire Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ, but many Bible readers do not realize that Jesus is in the Old Testament. Just last week, someone said on Twitter, “the Bible is a 1,200-page book that doesn’t introduce the main protagonist until page 939. Selah.”
That couldn’t be further from the truth. Jesus is present from the beginning to the end and said so Himself multiple times.
In John 5:39 He said, “you search the Scriptures because you think that in them, you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.”
In John 5:46, “for if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.”
And in Luke 24:44, Jesus says, “these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
His disciples also confirm the presence of Jesus in the Old Testament. In John 1:45, Philip says, “we have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And Peter wrote about it in 1 Peter 1:10-12.
All these Scriptures and more, agree that Jesus is in the Old Testament and that they testify of Him (Romans 3:21). But we often miss Jesus because He is not named and because He appears differently in the Old Testament than He does in the New Testament. But He is definitely there, and His presence makes a difference.
The original intent of the Old Testament is to lead to Jesus. If we fail to see Him in it, even though we might understand the OT intellectually, we will miss the whole point. But when we do see Him, everything just clicks and makes more sense. I love how the two disciples on the road to Emmaus described the experience of seeing Jesus in the Old Testament. They said, “did not our heart burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”
We also want the Holy Spirit to unlock the Scriptures and have our hearts burn within us. Hence, the goal of this series is to examine the different ways Jesus appears in the Old Testament. Each post will feature a few examples of Jesus’ appearances and some principles to help you see Him during your study.
It was initially supposed to be one post, but I love this topic and got a bit carried away when writing it. So I decided to make it a series instead. Here is the master list; I will link the posts as they become available.
0. How to See Jesus in All Scriptures
1. Jesus in the Old Testament: Christophanies
2. Jesus in the Old Testament: Types
3. Jesus in the Old Testament: Illustrations
4. Jesus in the Old Testament: Symbols
5. Jesus in the Old Testament: Prophecies
I will be releasing the remaining posts weekly. You can subscribe to the blog to get notified whenever a new blog post is published. You will also get access to my digital library featuring this printable showing Jesus in every book of the Bible.
Grace and peace to you!
Praise God, salutation in Christ, very good information, TQ so much