Jesus in the Old Testament
Many over the years have struggled to reconcile the New and Old Testament, primarily how it relates to Jesus and His place in Jewish history. But the fact is that the Hebrew Bible is largely the preparation and groundwork for what was to come in the life and death of Jesus. His presence covers its pages with appearances and metaphors giving us clues into God's ultimate plan as it unfolds through the historical landscape. Below are just a few examples of Jesus revealed in the Old Testament.
Ways in which Jesus Appears in the Old Testament
Jesus Appears in the Old Testament
Jesus in Creation
Types and Shadow of Jesus
Ways in which Jesus Appears in the Old Testament
- Appearances – Jesus walks in the garden with Adam, appears in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, wrestles with Jacob, visits Joshua, Gideon and Abraham.
- Types – Noah rescued mankind, Job suffered though righteous, Melchizedek was a king and priest, Joshua led God's people into the promise land, David was a warrior king and shepherd, Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days.
- Analogies – Abraham offering Isaac, sacrificial lamb, angel of death passes over those with blood on door, priest ritual washing.
- Events – Jesus in creation, makes man in "our" image, destroys Sodom and Gomorrah, speaks to Moses in the burning bush.
- Prophesies – born in Bethlehem to a virgin, son of David, suffer and die, betrayed, buried among the rich, riding a donkey.
Jesus Appears in the Old Testament
- Jesus in the Fire - He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the god.” Daniel 3:25
- Jesus wrestles with Jacob —So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” Genesis 32:24-30
- Jesus, along with two of his angels, visited Abraham. In Genesis 18:3, Abraham greets one of the men as “My Lord” (“Adonai” in Hebrew) which is a phrase in scripture used only to refer to God (see Ps. 110:1). Starting in Gen. 18:13, this man is called “the LORD.” Whenever the word LORD appears in scripture with all caps, this identifies God’s name Jehovah or Yahweh.
- Jesus also appeared to Joshua in Joshua. 5:13-15. Joshua was near Jericho when he saw a man with a sword drawn. Immediately Joshua wanted to know if he was friend or foe and he was told by the man that he was captain of the Lord’s host. Upon hearing this, Joshua fell on his face and worshipped him. This man did not stop Joshua from worshipping him as any other servant of the Lord would do (see Acts 10:26; 14:15; Rev. 19:10; 22:9 where servants of God stopped other men from worshipping them). Joshua asked Jesus what his message was and Jesus responded by telling Joshua to take off his shoes because he was on holy ground, which is the same thing he told Moses in Exodus when he appeared to him in a burning bush.
Jesus in Creation
- Genesis 1:1, 2, 26 where God’s name is Elohim, which is plural.
- Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…”
- Colossians 1:16 For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him;
Types and Shadow of Jesus
- Leviticus 16:21-22 “... Aaron (the high priest) shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, of a fit man into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
- Exodus 12:46 The lamb had to be without blemish, which was analogous to being without sin, and was to have no bones broken.
- When the destroyer (angel of death) went through Egypt killing the firstborn of all the Egyptians, he looked upon the sides and tops of the doors of the Israelites. When he saw the blood of the sacrifice, he did not enter. Likewise, Christians are protected by the sacrificial blood of Jesus. Like the lamb, He was crucified on the Passover. John 18:28
- Hebrews 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.