Tag: Old Testament

Finding Jesus in the Old Testament

by romans122life, posted in Bible, Christianity

Finding Jesus in the Old Testament can be tricky to some, but for others they can seem to find Him everywhere.  It is certainly not a game of Where’s Waldo, but finding Jesus is not always the easiest thing.  There are varying philosophies to seeing Jesus in the Old Testament text.  Some want to see him as a type in every narrative account.  Others want to only say He is there if there is a direct prophecy about him fulfilled in the New Testament.  I believe the best and most accurate way of seeing Jesus in these texts is to find a balance of both . . . that is to say to find Him in both portraits and  prophecies.

Jesus in portraits:

It can be a dangerous and unhelpful thing to allegorize every Old Testament text to find Jesus in it, but there are certainly many accounts that seem to picture Jesus clearly.  When you look at the sacrificial lamb in the Old Testament, one would be hard pressed not to see Jesus there, since Paul says Jesus is that Lamb in I Corinthians 5:7.  We also can see Jesus in the prophet Moses when in Acts 7 Stephen makes the connection between the two.  When Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, according to John (John 3:14), that pointed to what Jesus was going to do on the cross.  David was clearly a type of Jesus as the king of his people. Jesus is the water that came from the rock in the wilderness (John 4:14). Just as it saved the people in the wilderness, it saves his people now.  But, not only was he the water, he too was the manna that fell from the sky.  In John 6:35 Jesus is said to be the bread of life.  This is the logical connection.  Typology has its weaknesses, but there are clear places in scripture where the text nearly demands it.

Jesus in prophecies:

According to what number of prophecies you believe in, Jesus fulfilled somewhere between 100-300 prophecies in his 33 plus years on earth.  There is no doubt where we find Jesus in these text.

  1. The Messiah will be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). It was fulfilled in Luke 2.
  2. The Messiah will have a forerunner. (Malachi 3:1). This is fulfilled in John the Baptist which can be found in Matthew 3:1-3.
  3. The Messiah would make His triumphant entry riding on a donkey from Zechariah 9:9. This comes to fruition in Matthew 21:7, John 12:14-16.
  4. The Messiah would die by crucifixion. (Psalm 22, especially vv. 11-18). We see this fulfilled in Luke 23:33, Matthew 27:35, Mark 15:24, John 19:23.
  5. Those who arrested Him would cast lots for His garments (Psalm 22:18). This was fulfilled in Luke 23:34.

So, weather in portrait or in prophecy, there is no mistaking that Jesus is most certainly in the Old Testament.  It just takes a carful exegete to find where.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Adam B. Burrell

Is the Old Testament Really for Christians?

by romans122life, posted in Bible, Christianity

There is an old adage that goes like this, “I don’t need the Old Testament, just give me Jesus.”  Now, I must say, I am all about Jesus.  I want Jesus in every aspect of my life.  However, if truth be told, if you really want Jesus, then you need the Old Testament.  Over the next couple of posts I would like to give you some reasons why we as Christians should not just read the texts of the Old Testament, but love them as well.  I want us to find Jesus in these texts and see how to apply them in our own lives.  But today I would like to answer the question, why should Christians study the Old Testament.  There are many valid reasons for Christians to study the Old Testament, but I would like to give you just three.

Because you need it to understand the New Testament:

The reality is the whole Bible is one continuous story.  One does not pick up The Lord of the Rings and start reading two-thirds of the way through it.  No, if you want to understand the whole story you start in the Shire, not Mordor.  It is the same thing with the Bible.  One could not properly understand Jesus dying as the sacrificial Lamb without having a good understanding of Leviticus.  Jesus being King of Kings and Lord of Lords makes much more sense when you understand I Samuel – II Chronicles.  One reason that Christians should study the Old Testament is so that they can understand the whole story, and not just parts of it.

Because all of it is God-breathed scripture, not just the New Testament:

II Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”  The scripture that Paul was alluding to was actually the Old Testament canon.  While it is true that Paul says that Peter is writing scripture, and Peter says the same of Paul, the reality is all New Testament Christians primarily read the Old Testament as their Bible.  While some of the nuances of the books of Numbers or Daniel may be hard to apply for those standing on this side of the cross, the fact remains that all 39 books of the Old Testament are still “profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”  And for this reason, we should read it.

Because Jesus and the Apostles read it:

When Jesus quoted scripture, what did He use?  When the Ethiopian eunuch was looking for answers to who Jesus was, what was he reading?  When Paul was standing before King Agrippa explaining what Jesus had done for him, what did he quote?  When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, what text was he reading from?  The answer to all four of these questions is the Old Testament.  This was still the Bible of the day for these men.  Yes, Paul, Peter, John, Luke and others were in the process of being inspired themselves to write holy writ; but they primarily read, studied, and taught from the Old Testament.  If this was their primary text, doesn’t it stand to reason that we too should be reading it as well?

There are so many good reasons for us to both read and study the Old Testament.  We should not just look at it to learn lessons on how to have the faith of Abraham or how to be a Daniel in our generation in modern Babylon.  We have the law to point us to a Holy God.  We have poetry to teach us what to sing in worship.  And we have the prophets that give us a glimpse at how God progressively revealed himself.  So, if you have not read those glorious old accounts of how God dealt with his people (our people) in the pages of the Old Testament in a while, I encourage you to visit with God in the Garden . . . wrestle with the Angle of the Lord with Jacob . . . sing a song with David.  Why should we as New Testament believers read about the God that is on the other side of the cross?  Simply, He is the same God of the New Testament, and you don’t want to miss out on the whole story.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Adam B. Burrell