Written and compiled by Gary Kukis

Taken from lessons #002–003 in the Luke series.

Preface:   The Old Testament is filled with different ways that God promised a Messiah to mankind in general and to Israel in particular. This study includes 10 ways Jesus was revealed in the first 8 books of the Bible.

One fundamental purpose of the Old Testament was to set up the concept of a Messiah, Who would come and deliver the Hebrew people. He is known by many names in the Old Testament: the Seed of the Woman, the Messiah, the King of kings, David’s Greater Son, the Suffering Servant.

Jesus is revealed in the Old Testament in two principle ways: (1) By direct prophecy (examples: Gen. 49:10 2Sam. 7:16 Psalm 2:6–9 110:1–7 Isa. 7:14 9:6–7). The Jewish people themselves and their theologians understood these passages to speak of their Messiah. (2) Though typology.

Regarding prophecy, many of the passages about the Messiah are spoken by God directly to the writer of Scripture (Gen. 3:15 Isa. 7:14 9:6). I don’t believe that most of these passages were fully understood when written; but there did seem to develop an understanding that certain specific passages were about the Messiah. The religious class appeared to be obsessed with the Law; but less discerning when it came to the Jewish Messiah.

Typology is where a person, an institution, or an event is understood after the first advent, to represent or point to Jesus Christ (or to His work on the cross). A type may mean one thing when originally written; but come to mean something different with the passage of time. Abraham, Moses and David are all types of Christ. Long after the fact, we are able to see what is recorded about their lives; and we are able to connect these things to a plethora of parallels that even the human authors of Old Testament Scripture did not recognize. Generally speaking, when a typological event occurs (or an institution is presented), the writer who records this event (institution or person) has no idea that he is writing about the Messiah (or about some aspect of the Messiah).

The priesthood is an institution established by God with a set of specific purposes in the Old Testament. However, in retrospect, it is clear that the priesthood—and specifically the office of the High Priest—is representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. God knew this; but when Moses wrote down all of what God had to say about the priesthood, he never thought to himself, “Aha, God is talking about the Messiah here.” The various high priests never thought, in the midst of a service, “Wow, I am a representation of the Messiah to come.”

Typology is mentioned in the New Testament, but, like many other doctrines of the faith, was not fully developed in the 1^st century. Quite frankly, today, we know much more about typology than Paul, Peter or the writer of the book of Hebrews.

Typological passages Psalm 22 and Isa. 53 both speak of actual historical events of great suffering—the precise details of those events (who, what, where) are lost to us. However, those two passages provide us with great insight as to what Jesus did for us on the cross. Psalm 22 tells us about His actual physical suffering; and Isa. 53 speaks of the theological nature of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

One example that we will study below is God ordering Abraham to offer up his beloved son as a sacrifice to God. At the time, this is presented simply as an act of great obedience and trust on the part of Abraham. God told Abraham to do something, and Abraham just went ahead and did it (almost). However, in retrospect, this act is clearly all about God the Father offering up His Beloved Son for our sins.

Current Judaism has the problem that, at the heart of their Scriptures is the promise of a Savior-Messiah. They have, for the most part, set that part of their Scriptures aside, along with their complex system of rituals, all of which reveal this Savior-Messiah. Their problem today is, their Messiah came to them, and they rejected Him, hanging Him on the cross as a trouble-maker, despite being unable to find anything wrong that He did.

What I would like to do in this lesson, is briefly go through a few Old Testament passages and explain some of the places where Jesus is revealed. My emphasis will be upon the Old Testament Scriptures, without spending much time in the New Testament. The point being, the Old Testament is a solid foundation for the New. The list that follows is representative, not exhaustive.

The Seed of the Woman:

The first time that the Savior is revealed is back in Gen. 3:15, which is known as the proto-evangel. The serpent has tempted the woman, and she has disobeyed God and eaten from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Adam returned home, he looked at the woman, the partially eaten fruit, and he chose to eat the fruit that she handed to him. The woman had been deceived, but Adam ate the fruit, knowing full well that he was disobeying the one explicit negative command of God.

Both Adam and the woman also suddenly realized that they were naked and covered themselves up with fig leaves. When God came to the garden to speak to them, they hid themselves, guilty for their transgression. Through interrogation, God found out that the woman ate the fruit because she had been deceived by the serpent; and Adam ate the fruit that his wife gave him to eat. The woman acted, in part, out of ignorance having been deceived; but Adam knew that he was disobeying God.

God pronounced judgement upon the man, the woman and the serpent, but one verse in particular stands out.

The Revealed God is speaking to the serpent, announcing its judgment:

Gen. 3:15 I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring [lit., between your seed and her seed]; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." (ESV; capitalized; which is the translation which I will use throughout this lesson, unless otherwise noted).

Throughout human history, it is the man who provides the seed. This is his contribution to any child who is born; yet, God speaks of the woman’s seed here (Who is Jesus Christ). What will Jesus do? He would bruise the head of the serpent. That is a deathblow to serpent, also known as Satan. Jesus would completely crush the serpent. The serpent would bruise the heel of Jesus (that is, the Seed of the Woman). This means, the serpent would harm Jesus—enough to knock Him off His feet, so to speak; but this would not be a permanent deathblow.

We understand today that the sins of all mankind would be poured out upon Jesus and He would take upon Himself our judgment. His death on the cross is the bruise to His heel. The Seed of the Woman would be off His feet, but only for a limited time.

After judgment was pronounced, then God did something very interesting for Adam and the woman:

Gen. 3:21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

This does not mean that God looked at the clothing that Adam and the woman had quickly devised and said, “Look, those are some very sad threads. Let Me show you how clothing should be done.” This was not about fashion; it was about temporarily providing a covering for the man and woman (the verb to make atonement for means to cover over). Adam and the woman needed to be given a temporary covering. They needed to be atoned for. This gave them respite from the judgment of God, which they deserved.

God did something that Adam and the woman had never seen done before—God killed an animal and then made leather clothing from the skins of the animal. The sacrificed animal represents Jesus and the leather clothing that God made temporarily covered Adam and the woman, protecting them from judgment.

This sacrifice of animals—the innocent on behalf of the guilty—is a theme which runs throughout the Old Testament. It started as far back as Gen. 3; right after Adam and the woman had sinned.

The Genealogy Gospel:

Animal Sacrifices by Noah:

When Noah exited the ark with his family after the great flood, he offered up animal sacrifices from the clean animals (he took extras of those into the ark).

Gen. 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Noah offered up animals in sacrifice to God. These were burnt on an altar with fire. The fire speaks of judgment and the sacrifice of animals represents the sacrifice of the just for the unjust.

Gen. 8:21a And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man...”

God was pleased with the aroma of the animal sacrifice, which means that God is temporarily placated by the animal sacrifice, which are representative of the cross. He is pleased with the animal sacrifice. The animal sacrifice provides a temporary stay of execution.

When God gave the Hebrew people the Law, included in the Law was a set of animal sacrifices which the people were to participate in. By the time a person was old, he had seen hundreds upon hundreds of animals offered up for his sins. However, since these sacrifices continue for all his life, he would know that they were not actually effectual for the taking away of sin.

Abraham Offers Up His Son Isaac as a Type of Jesus Offering Himself for Our Sins:

In Gen. 22, God did something quite remarkable—He told Abraham to take the son whom he loved and to offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that God would designate. Not before or since has God required that anyone offer up any human sacrifice, and yet here, that is exactly what He was doing.

This was a 3-day trip to get to the mountain; and on the trip, Abraham was cognizant of who was to be offered up; but his son, Isaac, was not. They traveled with two servants and many believe that they went to the mountain that would later be associated with Jerusalem and the cross (called Mount Moriah).

Then we read words which are unlike anything else in the Bible:

Gen.22:9–10 Then they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

But Abraham is stopped by God. Then Abraham sees that there is a ram stuck in a thicket and that ram is offered up instead of Isaac.

For Abraham and Hebrew readers of the Old Testament, this has always been understood to be an act of great obedience and trust on the part of Abraham. However, after Jesus had been offered on the cross as God’s only begotten Son Whom God greatly loved, it is clear that Isaac was a type of Christ being offered up. The ram illustrates the substitutionary element of this event.

Joseph as a Type of Christ:

The Passover and the Death of the Firstborn:

In the book of Exodus, Moses had gone before Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) requesting that the people of God, the Hebrew people (those descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) be allowed to go out from Egypt in order to worship their God. Pharaoh was obstinate about this and refused to let them go. Each time Moses asked and Pharaoh refused, God sent another plague to Egypt. The final plague was the death of the firstborn. Moses gave this warning:

Exodus 11:4–6 So Moses said, "Thus says the LORD: 'About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again.”

There would be one way only to keep the firstborn from being killed in any particular house. Each household was to offer up a lamb sacrifice.

Exodus 12:5–6 [God is speaking, giving Moses the directions] “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.”

The lamb to be offered represents Jesus Christ dying for our sins. It must be a lamb without blemish (as Jesus was without sin). When the time was right, “and then the entire assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it [lit., Him] at twilight.” (ISV). The literal translation of the Hebrew is even more striking: And you [all] will slaughter him—all of the assembly of a congregation of Israel—between the evenings. The literal rendering of this verse is

quite remarkable, as, when Jesus died on the cross, the entire congregation of Israel seemed to rise up to slaughter Him.

Blood from that lamb would be painted on the side posts of the door and at the top of the doorframe (the blood from the top would have dripped down). The blood on the doorframe would match the blood of the Lord coming from His head, hands, and feet during the crucifixion.

The Passover Door (a graphic); from Blue Stocking Red Neck; accessed December 7, 2018.

Every household which applied the blood of the lamb to the door saved their household. The households which ignored this requirement saw their firstborn die that night. There were no restrictions here; anyone—Israeli or Egyptian—could have done this in order to preserve their family. And all of those who didn’t, lost their firstborn.

Waters from the Rock at Horeb:

In Exodus 17, there is a fascinating record of the people complaining to Moses of their thirst, accusing him of taking them out to the desert to kill them. Moses, upset, goes to the Lord with this problem.

Exodus 17:4 So Moses cried to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me."

Moses was reasonably afraid for his own life.

Exodus 17:5 And the LORD said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.

God tells him to go before the people, taking some elders with him and the staff which he used to strike the Nile (it was with this staff that Moses turned the waters to blood, a sign of judgment upon Egypt).

Exodus 17:6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.

The word behold is a form of the word, to see; and God is telling Moses that he will see God on the rock at Horeb. Moses is to strike the rock with his staff—and God is on that rock, so Moses is very nearly striking God.

Living waters, the water of life, will come forth from that rock and give the people the water which will preserve them.

The Rock is Christ; striking the rock is the judgment of God upon Jesus; and out from Him will flow living waters, the water of life. If we drink of Him, we will never thirst again.

John 4:7–8 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)

John 4:9 The Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

John 4:10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is that is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

John 4:13–14 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

The Ark of God:

One of the most holy and revered objects designed by God is the Ark (also known as the Ark of God or the Ark of the Covenant—described in Exodus 25 37). The Ark represents Jesus Christ. It is made out of acacia wood, overlain with gold. The wood represents the humanity of Jesus and the gold His Deity.

No one could touch the Ark; actual contact with the Ark would result in immediate death. Mortal man cannot come into direct contact with the holiness of God. God is too holy and man is sinful.

In or beside the Ark were 3 objects: the Law of Moses; Aaron’s rod that budded; and the pot of manna. The Law of Moses represents our condemnation; as we are unable to keep the law. Aaron’s rod that budded represents resurrection; as all believers will rise again. The pot of manna is God’s provision for each and every believer in life (also known as, logistical grace).

On the great day of atonement, the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies (a room within the Tabernacle and later within the Temple). No one was allowed in this room and all that was found in this room is the Ark of God and some items built specifically for the Ark. Once a year, the High Priest would enter into this room with blood from a sacrifice, and some of that blood would be sprinkled on the Mercy Seat, which sat upon the Ark (there are also two carved angels overlooking the Mercy Seat). The blood on the Mercy Seat represents Jesus dying for our sins on the cross; and the two angels represent the Angelic Conflict; the fallen and elect angel who watch mankind during our time in history. A description of the Ark can be found in Exodus 25:10–28 and Heb. 9:1–5. The activities of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement are found in Lev. 16:15–17.

“A Prophet Like Unto Me”:

Moses, when speaking to the people of Israel, before they were to come into the land, said this:

Deuteronomy 18:15 [Moses is speaking] "The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to Him you shall listen—...”

This prophet, who was to be raised up from among the people, would be Jesus. He would be a prophet like Moses, inasmuch as He would have that great authority that Moses had.

The Kinsman Redeemer:

In the book of Ruth, Ruth is a Moabite woman married to an Israelite man who dies before they have children. She chooses to ally herself with the Hebrew people and goes to live in Israel with her mother-in-law.

There is a tradition in the ancient world that, a near relative can marry Ruth and raise up a child to perpetuate the name of her late husband. Such a man is known as a kinsman-redeemer. The kinsman means that he is a near relative and redeemer means that he, by raising up a child, redeems the name of the past husband.

Ruth married her kinsman-redeemer, a very successful man named Boaz; and from them came Obed, who fathered Jesse who fathered David (who would be king over Israel).

The parallel is, Jesus is our Kinsman, inasmuch as He is a man as we are. And He has redeemed us from sin (that is, He has paid for our sins).

These are but a handful of illustrations, types and prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ found in the first 8 books of the Old Testament. There are many, many others throughout Scripture. I simply wanted to include enough to show that, Jesus is revealed in the Old Testament in many, many ways. All of this foreshadowing is certainly foundational to the revelation of the New Testament. At the heart of the Jewish faith has been the Law of Moses (which tells us that we have sinned), the special relationship between God and the people of Jacob, and the Messiah-Savior.

Modern-day Israel is a great and wonderful nation. But, modern-day Judaism lacks most of its founding principles. That is because the Old Testament is not the foundation for Judaism but for Christianity (that is a very profound statement, by the way; about which book could easily be written).

Addendum