“JESUS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT” Lesson 160

Information about Jesus Christ is not confined in the New Testament. The Old Testament might appear to be just God’s message to the Jewish people and an account of their history, but it is much more. You can read all about Jesus in the Old Testament. The Old Testament shows a greater Jesus Christ and the New Testament explains clearer who He is. These Old Testament Scriptures explain the reason for His birth, the work He was to accomplish and the glory in store for Him and for all who come to Him. They also show the works He did in the Old Testament when He appeared to the people and the prophets as the angel of the Lord, Lord, I Am, Yahweh, Elohim, Adonai, Spirit, Jehovah and Messiah. The word Messiah is a Hebrew word taken right out of the Old Testament. It means ‘anointed’ which is Greek for ‘Kristos’, our English word, Christ. In the Old Testament, Messiah stood for the Promised One, the coming King and the One whose right it is (Eze. 21:25-27). When Jesus appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, He opened their minds to the Old Testament Scriptures (Luke 24:44-48).

The first time we see Jesus in the Old Testament is in Genesis 1:1; “In the beginning”. John explains ‘the beginning’ in the first verse of his book; “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”. God and Jesus are one (John 10:30, 17:21) therefore Jesus Himself is the Word and was the beginning. Revelation 1:8, 22:13 tells us that He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. When ‘the Lord’ spoke to someone in the Old Testament, it was Jesus speaking and when the people saw ‘the Lord’ they were seeing Jesus. Jesus Himself tells us In John 5:37; “you have neither heard His voice nor seen His form”. Then in John 8:58, Jesus revealed the identity of the One that spoke and appeared in the Old Testament; “Before Abraham was born, I AM”. This is the same I AM that spoke to Moses in Exodus 3:13-14 saying; “This is what you are to say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you’”.

The angel of the Lord that appeared to Moses in the burning bush was Jesus (Exo. 2:2), the Word of the Lord that came to Abram in a vision was Jesus (Gen. 15:1). No one has ever seen the Father (John 6:46) and if we read John 1:18 we learn that “no one has ever seen God, but God the One and only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him know”. Jesus is God revealed in the Old Testament, since He is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15), therefore if anyone at anytime has seen God then we should expect that they saw the image of the invisible God, the Word, Jesus. Jesus and the Father were here on earth together as stated in John 8:29 and we need to believe that Jesus is the invisible God and believe that He is who He says He is (John 8:24). The “I Am” that spoke to Moses (Gen. 3:14) is the same “I Am” in Revelation 1:8 and John 14:6, Jesus, the image of the invisible God. Isaiah said he saw the King, the Lord Almighty (Isaiah 6:5) which is the King of Matthew 27:37; “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews”, and the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” in Revelation 19:16.

Since it has been established that no one has heard God’s voice nor seen His form (John 5:37) then all of the Old Testament scriptures where they ‘saw and heard the Lord’, they were seeing the image of the invisible God, Jesus. The Lord Jesus came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses (Num. 11:25), from the Father, by the Son, through the Holy Spirit which was upon Him. Exodus 33:20 tells us that no one can see God’s face and live and again in 1 Timothy 6:16 we read that we have not seen God and cannot see God. It stands to reason that the ones in the Old Testament that write that they saw the Lord face to face (Gen. 32:30) as Jacob did, were seeing Jesus. Manoah though he and his wife would surely die because they saw God (Jud. 13:22), the Lord appeared to Solomon twice (1 Kings 11:9) and Isaiah saw the King (Isa. 6:5) but they all lived proving that the one they saw was the image of the invisible God, Jesus.

The Apostle Paul stated that “the Israelites were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them and that rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:2-4). This same spiritual rock was recorded in Deuteronomy 32:3-4 as the Lord, faithful God and the Rock. God is the Lord of Lords in Deuteronomy and Jesus is the same Lord of Lords in Revelation 17:14, and in 1 Timothy 6:15-16 where He is again called God, whom no one has seen or can see. God spoke to Zechariah using the word ‘me’ in conjunction with the one being pierced (Zec. 12:10), yet the Apostle John referred to the same scripture and says that it was fulfilled when Jesus was pierced (John 19:34). The Psalmist writes that God will remain the same and His years will never end just as the author of Hebrews writes the same about the Son (Ps. 102:24-27, Heb. 8, 10-12). In Isaiah 45:21 God, a righteous God, is the Savior and in Acts 4:11-12 and John 4:14 we find that Jesus the Son is the Savior of the world.

Angels are God’s messengers but where it says that the angel of the Lord did or said something, we need to read carefully to decide it this messenger was an angel or Jesus Christ. In Genesis 16:7-9 the ‘angel of the Lord’ told Hagar that he would increase her descendants, however, angels do not have the power to increase so this must have been Jesus Christ. When John fell at the angel’s feet the angel told him not to do this since he was a fellow servant. Worship God! (Rev. 19:10). If the angel did not identify himself this way then the angel of the Lord appearing to man was Jesus Christ. This is shown in Joshua 513-15 when the “commander of the army of the Lord” came to Joshua. Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence but was not told not to do this, but rather the Commander said; “take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy”. The angel that Jacob struggled with was Jesus (Hosea 12:4, Gen. 32:29-30), and Jacob said that he saw God face to face and yet his life was spared. Now we have already learned that no one can see God’s face and live and that God and Jesus Christ are the only ones that can give blessings, so it was Jesus that Jacob saw and Jesus that gave the blessing. The ‘part’ of God that Moses spoke to face to face as a friend was Jesus (Ex. 33:17-20), because there is too much glory around God for we as mere men to take in and live. If you want to get to know God then learn about Jesus. Jesus revealed God in Himself throughout the Old and the New Testament.

Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on His throne in the temple and His glory was all around (Isa. 6:3), yet John said that Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him (John 12:41). In Judges 13:3 Jesus is called the angel of the Lord, 13:6 He is the man of God, 13:9 the angel of God and in 13:17 again He is called the angel of the Lord. Why did they not die? Because it was the Son and not the Father they saw and spoke to. John 5:22 tells us that the Father judges no one but trust judgment to the Son. On that great Judgment Day we will meet Jesus as Judge and He always has been the Judge. Jesus brought judgment on the world through Noah’s flood and rained down judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:24). The New Testament word for Lord is Jesus and it was He that brought His people out of Egypt (Jude 5), He that brought us out of sin (John 3:16) and it will be He that leads us home (John 3:5).

Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Hagar, Joshua, Gideon and Job all saw the invisible God revealed in Jesus Christ. They saw the great I AM, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. The Lord told Habakkuk to “write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay” (Hab. 2:2-3). This revelation is written down for us from Genesis to Revelation and our appointed time is around the corner. He who testifies to the Book of Revelation says; “Yes, I am coming soon” (Rev. 22:20). Man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment (Heb. 9:27), and that Judge will be Christ (1 Pet. 4:5). He is preparing a place (John 14:3) for all who accept Him to live with Him eternally, but it is usually a normality that we ‘get acquainted’ with someone before we move into their house. Jesus asked Philip why he did not know Him even though he had been around Him a long time (John 14:9).

WILL HE HAVE TO ASK YOU THE SAME QUESTION?