God paints in the Old Testament scriptures a portrait of Jesus.
Imagine a situation where your life is telling a story, except that this story is not your story but someone else’s. You are just living your life but do not know your life is telling a story that someone else has decided to tell.
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How can that be?
Remember this: “(God) is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” (Ephesians 3:20).
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How does (God) synchronise our personal decisions and actions to the story He has decided to tell humanity in the scriptures?
That is the power of God. Jesus told the Sadducees:
“You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29).
Throughout the scriptures of the Old Testament, God used His power to ensure that actual events turned out to be parabolic representations of His plan of redemption. From Genesis to Malachi, God makes every life and incident a pre-figuration of Jesus Christ.
Here is the kingdom dynamic. Jesus says:
“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” (Mark 4:26-29).
Portrait of Christ
God paints in the Old Testament scriptures a portrait of Jesus. The people He uses to paint this portrait do not know their lives are painting such a portrait. But when you combine the bits and pieces of the different lives depicted from Genesis to Malachi, you end up with an outstanding picture of Jesus.
We read so many disjointed prophecies about Jesus in the psalms and the prophets. And then suddenly, in the gospels, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the person of whom the scriptures have spoken shows up.
Paul says: “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son.” (Galatians 4:4).
And we are left in awe and wonder at the amazing power of God.
Jesus says: “Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39).
This is predicted in the psalms of David: “Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.” (Psalms 40:7).
In a period spanning 1,500 years, all the people in the Old Testament, all the incidents, and all the ceremonial rites, all point to one person, Jesus Christ.
When He rose from the dead, Jesus met two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus:
“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:32).
The scriptures, from Genesis to Malachi, all tell us something or the other about Jesus, but we do not know this until Jesus Himself arrives on the scene in the gospels and turns on the light as the light of the world.
Then we realise that all the tedious laws and customs of the Israelites presented in the Old Testament have a singular spiritual significance: to present a composite picture of the birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, designed to redeem mankind from sin, to the glory of God the Father.
Word of God
Jesus is the word of God written in the Old Testament. When He finally came in person, He told us:
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63).
This means the ceremonies and sacrificial rituals Moses gave to Israel were not carnal ordinances. They were spiritual representations of the life and character of Jesus. It is quite possible that Moses himself did not know this. Certainly, the prophets wrote things by inspiration without fully knowing precisely what they were writing about.
“Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.” (1 Peter 1:10-12).
Past Guinea Pigs
The things that happened in the Old Testament were written with us in mind. When the light was turned on in the New Testament, we discovered that:
“Whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” (Romans 15:4).
“These things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; 10 nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (1 Corinthians 10:6-11).
The writer of Hebrews notes that the tabernacle that God commissioned Moses to build served as:
“The copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For (God) said, ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’” (Hebrews 8:5-6).
In effect, the Law of Moses was: “A shadow of the good things to come.” (Hebrews 10:1).
It therefore becomes incumbent upon us to ascertain, by the help of the Holy Spirit, the significance of the types and shadows presented in the Old Testament.
John the Baptist said about Jesus: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
Jesus then was the lamb that Abraham told Isaac God would provide: “Then (Isaac) said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, ‘My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.’” (Genesis 22:7-8).
When God says in Hosea: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6).
And when Jesus repeats this: “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’” (Matthew 9:13).
He was telling us that God does not require man to do what only God can do.
“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when (Jesus) came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.” (Hebrews 10:4-6).
So, what was the point of all those sacrificial rituals of the Old Testament?
Their futility was evident in that they had to be repeated again and again. But perfection came when Christ offered Himself “once for all” and sat down, having finished His work.
“This Man, (Christ Jesus), after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:12-14).
