Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament - Gods People

Discovering Jesus
I have always liked taking things apart and putting them back together… From computers to lawnmowers… I just like to know how things work… But I don’t like doing puzzles. My wife loves them… The idea of addressing two thousand problems in a pile on a kitchen table just does not sound like a good way to relax. 
Sometimes people look at the Bible like a puzzle… We may be familiar with its pieces but are really not sure of how they fit together. 
If you’re new to the Bible, it’s as if you’ve just poured the pieces out on the table. You’re excited. But you may also feel overwhelmed. Sometimes, when we lack understanding and grow impatient, we try to jam the Bible’s pieces together. 
Have you ever tried doing that with a puzzle? You aren’t sure how they’re supposed to fit, but if a piece almost fits, you think it’s good enough. But as we know with puzzles, jamming pieces together won’t give us the right picture in the end.
Like a puzzle, the pieces of the Bible—the books, letters, characters, and stories—do fit together. The Bible reveals more than a picture for us to enjoy. It reveals a person for us to know. Jesus is that person. 
On the last page of the Bible, Jesus makes an astounding claim: 
Revelation 22:13 (NKJV)  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” 
What does Jesus mean? Jesus says that the purpose and meaning of the universe, history, and every human life is tied to him.
Colossians 1:17 (ESV)  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  
As we are attempting to find Jesus in the Old Testament, what we are really doing is teaching you how to read the Old Testament. God embedded in the history of redemption types and shadows that pointed forward to Jesus Christ. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible tells one story—its the story of the grace of God found only in Jesus Christ.
The true people of God in the Old Testament understood that the old covenant pointed forward to a Messiah. This was something they received by faith. In other words, just as by faith, we look back to the cross of Christ and his resurrection. The Old Testament saints look forward, through the types and shadows of the old covenant, to the Messiah. 
 
We have 3 main convictions when it comes to the Bible. 
 
Conviction 1: The Bible is a book about Jesus Christ.
Conviction 2: The Bible is a unified story.
Conviction 3: Through the Bible’s story, we come to know Jesus in all his glory.
With each significant Old Testament character that you come across, you should ask this question:
How does this person foreshadow Christ?
In what way does this person anticipate the person and work of Jesus?
In what way does Jesus far surpass this person? 
In what way does Jesus succeed where this person failed/fell short?
 
What we will learn is that there are foggy pictures of something greater. Those pictures have become crystal clear to you and I who know Jesus. 
In Plato’s famous Allegory of the Cave, the philosopher describes a world where people live in a cave all their life, and they see the entire world by the shadows that dance in front of them on the cave wall. They think that the shadows are the “real” world—they give names to them, and they live as if this is reality. Eventually, they break free and enter the real world, discovering that everything they were watching was a distortion of the real thing. 
 
Let’s start with Adam
Adam is not just the first man in God’s story. He is the representative of humanity and the head of creation itself. He is God’s image-bearer and was to take the role of prophet, priest, and king. God spoke directly to Adam. And Adam (in a prophetic role) was responsible to mediate God’s word to his wife and children. Adam (in a priestly role) was responsible to mediate God’s presence to the world by expanding Eden’s borders, filling it with image-bearers, and representing God to His people. Adam (in a kingly role) was given dominion over the world as a servant king who was to act as God’s representative and son. 
Adam was a prophet, priest, and king. 
When Adam ate the fruit… Adam traded the truth of the Creator’s word for the creature’s lie so God’s Word changed from a promise of blessing to a word of judgment. Adam was now a failed prophet, unable to speak truth or blessing. He was also a failed priest, unable to stand in God’s presence. God’s presence became a presence of holy wrath for him. Adam was now a failed king. Adam traded the rule of God as Creator for the authority of a serpent. The earth created for Adam’s rule now rules over him.
The first human couple walked out of the garden of God’s presence under a cloud of shame. 
They were banished, and so are we. The roles that were first established in Adam, Jesus Christ perfectly fills: Jesus is the truer and better Prophet
Luke 24:19 (NKJV)  19 And He said to them, “What things?” So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 
Jesus is the truer and better Priest 1 Timothy 2:5 (NKJV) 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 
Jesus is the truer and better King Revelation 19:16 (NKJV) 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS 
Jesus is the truer and better Adam – The Last Adam. As we look at the account of Adam and Jesus.. Some similarities jump off the page
Both Jesus and Adam were tempted. But Adam was tempted once…and failed. Jesus received three temptations…and he resisted them all. HOW? By doing what Adam failed to do: focusing on what God had said. 
Adam doubted the Word of God; Jesus used the Word as his defense. After they had been tempted, Adam and Jesus saw very different responses from the serpent, which is Satan. 
After the serpent tempts Adam, he disappears from the story. But when Jesus withstands the temptation, the serpent sticks around, and the serpent bites. And at that moment, on the cross, when it appeared that the serpent had finally won, God was actually crushing his head as promised in the garden long ago.
Both Adam and Jesus entered the world sinless. However, where Adam failed, Jesus triumphed.
1 Corinthians 15:21–22 (NLT)  21 So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. 22 Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. 
Adam sinned once and doomed humanity. 
Jesus died once and delivered humanity 
Romans 5:18–19 (NLT)  18 Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. 19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. 
 
Through Christ’s work of redemption:
•         Sins are forgiven.
•         Atonement is made.
•         Propitiation is accomplished.
•         Death is defeated.
•         Righteousness is granted.
•         Justice is satisfied.
•         Reconciliation is achieved.
•         The head of the serpent is crushed.
•         The curse of sin is reversed.
•         One day – Christ will return – and make all things new!
•         The entire world will be renewed.
•         Death will be no more.
•         No more weeping.
•         No more pain.
•         No more sorrow.
 
The work of Christ in redemption is far superior than Adam’s work in rebellion. If we pay close attention to the details and since we know the end of the story. We will see a remarkable picture of Jesus everywhere we look in the Bible.  
John 20:15 (NKJV)  15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” 
Mary mistakes the risen Jesus for the gardener— What was Adams's job in the Garden of Eden? The shadow of the old gardener is now fully and clearly seen as Jesus. Death came to all through disobedience .. When Adam ate from a tree Now life comes to all through obedience when Christ hung on a cross made from a tree!
As history unveils itself… from Adam on…  the people of God are on the lookout for a man who will be raised up and mend what Adam destroyed. 
 
Let’s look at the Ark of Noah
Noah's Ark! One of the most amazing objects God ever designed for men to build. So as humans multiplied, so did human sin and evil: 
Genesis 6:5 (NKJV)  Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 
This news is similar to learning that the entire human race has stage 4 cancer. We knew we had a problem, but now we know that it’s deep within us and universal. Adam’s first sin led to Abel’s murder, and now that same evil is alive and well in all humanity. 
Romans 3:23 (NKJV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 
The story of Noah’s ark is not a comforting story of friendly animals to entertain children—it’s a horror story.
Genesis 6:7 (NKJV) 7 So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
God says he will do this through a flood, and only Noah and his family will survive.The flood was God’s direct judgment on human sin.
Genesis 6:17–18 (NKJV) 17 And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
Noah obeyed the Lord in everything (6:22). He loaded up the boat, the rain came, and “the LORD shut him in” (7:16). The water covered the earth so that even its high mountains were submerged. Every living thing was killed, and “only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark” (7:23). The carnage was indescribable. Human sin was crushed under the weight of an ocean as wide as the earth. After many months, and after the waters went down, at God’s command Noah and his crew left the ark. Noah, a son of Eve, saved the world. – Just as promised long ago…It was a chance to start over and begin again. 
Never had things looked this good for humanity since Eden. When he steps off the ark, the first thing Noah does is build an altar to worship God. Adams's Job to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth is now Noah’s reasonability. Yet even with these promises, we soon learn that Noah, too, had Adam’s problem. Noah built a boat and saved the world, yet a short time later, we find him drunk and naked in his tent. as faithful as he was, Noah wasn’t the son of Eve who would turn back sin and death. Noah himself needed a redeemer. 
Someone greater than Adam and Noah must still come. God left hints or shadows of this Last Adam…Even in the specifics in building the ark, he told Noah in Genesis 6:16 “Put a door on the side of the ark…”  That one door led Noah and his whole family to salvation. Today, we have an infinitely greater Ark—the Lord Jesus Christ! 
John 10:9 (NKJV) 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, (From the flood of God's wrath) and will go in and out and find pasture. 
The flood is a foretaste of coming judgment, of what humanity will receive. Like Noah’s judgment, the final Judgement will take people by surprise: 
Matthew 24:37–39 (NKJV) 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Matthew 24:42 (NKJV) 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
No one saw the flood coming, and that was the problem. The flood comes by a surprise to the people of that day, as will the final judgment Jesus describes.But the final judgment is far worse. The judgment by the flood was only partial and temporary, the final judgment is eternal. In the final judgment, there is no relief,     and Noah’s flood becomes a reminder to us of a greater judgment to come.Jesus will save us from God’s judgment by taking that judgment on himself.
We see this theme of water during creation, then again as wrath. Finally, we will see water as a way to declare our salvation in baptism.  We see this theme of a great promise being fulfilled see this theme of a tree… From Adam eating the fruit from the tree, which introduced sin to the wood-built Ark that carried Noah to salvation. This theme rips through history until we see Christ on the wooden cross securing our salvation for eternity. 
 
FROM ADAM TO NOAH TO ABRAHAM 
When God says, “I will,” that can be a good thing or a bad thing. It was a good thing when God said to Adam, “I will make him a helper suitable for him” (2:18), and a bad thing when he said to the woman, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe” (3:16). It was a good thing when God said to the serpent, “I will put hostility between you and the woman” (3:15), but a word of judgment when God said, “I will bring floodwaters on the earth” (6:17). God’s promise to Abraham is good and gracious. God now promises that through Abraham and his offspring, he will bring salvation to the world. Here is the promise in a series of “I will” statements: 
 
Genesis 12:1–3 (NKJV)  1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 
God spoke his promise to Abraham and Sarah repeatedly, and they laughed. They were around one hundred years old… without a child…  And God said I will make you into a great nation, and your offspring will number more than the stars. When they finally did have a son… Isaac, they laughed again, this time out of joy and wonder at God’s amazing provision. God did the unthinkable: he provided a son to barren Sarah and old man Abraham. Many years later, Abraham was no longer laughing. Because God said…, 
 
Genesis 22:2 (NKJV) 2 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
 
We can only imagine the confusion and anxiety in Abraham’s heart. He knew that God’s promise to make his offspring more numerous than the stars would come through Isaacbut how would God keep it if Isaac was dead? As Abraham lifted his hand to slay his son his only son, an angel of the Lord commanded him to stop, saying,  
Genesis 22:12 (NKJV)  12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” 
God spared Isaac. God provided an alternative sacrifice: 
Genesis 22:13–14 (NKJV)  13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” 
Salvation came through Substitution. God demands from us perfect obedience, but we don’t obey perfectly! Whatever Abraham had in mind in Gen 22:8 when they walked up the mountain father and son… with a stack of wood on the back of Isaac when Isaac ask his dad.. Where is the sacrifice… Abraham replied, “God himself will provide the lamb,” he spoke better than he knew. 
Abraham’s walk with his son to Mount Moriah foreshadows the journey of another Father and Son on another mountain many years later. Abraham hears the voice from heaven say, “Stop! There is another to take his place.” Yet when the father and Son walk to Calvary, there is no voice saying, “Stop. Here is another.” Rom. 8:32 echoes back to Genesis 22; Paul states this glorious truth this way: 
 
Romans 8:32 (NKJV)  32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 
God’s command to sacrifice Isaac was to foreshadow God’s sacrifice of His own Son. Many centuries after God’s command for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, Jesus said, 
 
John 8:56 (NKJV)  56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” 
This is a reference to Abraham’s joy in seeing the ram caught in the bush in Genesis 22. 
That ram was the substitute that would save Isaac’s life. Seeing that ram was, in essence, seeing a shadow of the day of Christ, the Substitute for all of us.As God provides a truer and better Lamb that was slain. 
 
There is a better Adam
There is a greater Noah
There is a truer Abraham
BUT FIRST, LETS LOOK AT MOSES 
 
The book of Exodus opens with God’s people in slavery to Egypt, and it ends with them in service to God. It opens with God’s people building cities for an oppressor, and it closes with the building of a tabernacle for God’s glorious presence. It opens with the drowning of Israel’s children, and it ends with Pharaoh’s army drowning under the waters of the Red Sea. The book of Exodus is structured in three parts. First, God delivers his people from Egyptian bondage through Moses (1–15). Second, God speaks through Moses to his people in the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai (16–31). Third, Moses established the tabernacle and the induction of the entire priesthood. In the giving of the Law, God included instructions for a traveling, tent-like structure. 
The Lord expressed its purpose simply and beautifully: 
 
Exodus 25:8 (NKJV) 8 And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
 
God was very on purpose about how the tabernacle would be set up. From the courtyard, we enter the tent from the east, which would lead into the first of two rooms. The first room is the “Holy Place.”From this Holy Place, you would see a large stunning pair of curtains. These curtains form a barrier between the Holy Place and the innermost part of the tabernacle, the holy of holies—the place of direct encounter with God. The dwelling place of God
This was ground zero for God’s presence on earth. The closer you would get to the tabernacle’s holy of holies, the greater the holiness and the steeper the requirements are for access. The garments, the rituals, and the furniture heighten with each space. They all point to Christ.
Once constructed, the glory of God filled the tabernacle. All of this. The great rescue from slavery, the laws, and the tabernacle… all pointed to someone greater who would finally deal with the problem of sin.
 
We today participate in a Greater Exodus. The prophets that follow Moses will speak of another exodus yet to come. Their focus is God’s deliverance of his people from what led them there in the first place—their sin. Isaiah speaks of a greater redemption Tied to a greater exodus Brought about by the Servant of the Lord Who comes as our substitute and pays for our sin  
Jesus speaks of his death as an exodus.
 
Luke 9:31 (NLT)  31 They were glorious to see. And they were speaking about his exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem. 
In Christ, an even greater exodus from slavery has occurred. Not slavery of people but of slavery of sin. In Christ, you and I experience an exodus more miraculous than Israel knew as she walked between walls of water.
 
We Enter a Greater Tabernacle. The tabernacle was to remind us of Eden, but it was not a return to the days of unobstructed access to God in the garden. It was “a copy and shadow of what is in heaven” (Heb. 8:5). Access to a Holy God. 
 
One day Jesus Christ, God the Son in the flesh, would dwell among us—that word for “dwell” being the very word for “tabernacle” 
 
Hebrews 9:11–12 (NKJV) 11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
 
Jesus’ death makes possible the meeting of man with God in the very holy of holies. This is why, at Jesus’ death, “the curtain of the temple that blocked the holy of holies… was torn in two from top to bottom,” As if God reached down saying the death of my son has made our relationship right again and ripped it open!
 
Mark 15:36–38 (NKJV) 36 Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down.” 37 And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. 38 Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
 
 
The coming messiah runs ramped through the Old Testament. 
Every story, every miracle, every promise, every prophecy, every page, every person… 
All points to a greater and better with are found in Jesus.