Christ in the Old Testament

This is a topic I love talking about. I could easily get carried away, but for the sake of brevity, I will only choose a few verses to reference. Jesus may have come down from heaven to dwell among us in the flesh 2000 years ago in Palestine, but he was revealed in many different ways throughout the Old Testament as well. Here are a few examples.

1. The Christ was revealed to Abraham - Jesus tells the disillusioned Pharisees, "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Paul expands on this in his letter to the Galatians, saying, "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'In you shall all the nations be blessed'" (Galatians 3:8).
2. The Christ was revealed to Moses - Again, Jesus tells the disbelieving Jews, "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:45-47).
3. The Christ was revealed to King David - In his sermon at Pentecost, Peter tells the Jews gathered in the house, "Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he [David] foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption" (Acts 2:30-31).
4. The Christ was revealed to Isaiah - Referencing the wonderful vision Isaiah recorded in Isaiah 6, John says in his gospel account, "Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him [Jesus]" (John 12:41).
5. The Christ was revealed to the rest of the Old Testament prophets - Peter writes about the manner in which the prophets wrote during their day to the downward-spiraling people of Israel about the great hope to come, "Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories" (1 Peter 1:10-11).
6. And finally, Jesus himself explained that the entire Old Testament was about him - During their walk down the road to Emmaus, two disciples listen to Jesus reveal himself to them, "And he said to them, 'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:25-27).

This is just a rudimentary look at how much the Son is spoken of in the Old Testament. This is what is called a Christocentric approach to the Scripture, where Jesus is seen as the focal point of every book, every event, ever period in history. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

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The Prophet like Moses

I truly believe that one could walk up to a Bible for the first time, read its pages, and glean wonderful things from it. That is the nature of God's word - living and active, cutting between joints and marrow, killing and making alive. But the fact remains - his revelation to us is a cohesive unit, meant to be understood as a whole. In line with this frame of thinking, what makes so many of the things Jesus says so shocking to the Pharisees and Saducees is that it sounds so familiar to them - Jesus is re-scripting the drama of Moses and the prophets. And he is declaring himself the one in whom they all anticipated. One such example is when Moses foretells of the prophet to come, who will speak the very words of God. Hear what Moses says from Deuteronomy 18:15-18,

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 - just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, "Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die." And the LORD said to me, "They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him."

Moses receives the Law from the voice of the LORD at Mt. Sinai (or Mt. Horeb). Fearing this voice, the people request that Moses speak to them. So Moses, as the representative prophet and lawgiver, enunciates the Law to Israel and pronounces its blessings and cursings. In Deuteronomy 18, however, the voice of the LORD says that there will be another prophet like Moses who will come bearing the very words of God in his mouth. The impression given is that this prophet will be greater than Moses - his capacity for revealing the mysteries of the commands of God to man will surpass that of his predecessor. The scene is set at a time when the people know they have not listened to Moses and all he communicated to them of God's law. But the LORD assures them that they will listen to this prophet.

Fast forward about 1400 years to another mountain overlooking the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus now speaks to the crowds (Matthew 5:1-7:29). He expounds to them both the deeper meaning and the reality of the commands of God. He tells them that he came to fulfill all that the Law and the prophets spoke. Preceding each explanation with a series of "you have heard that it was said...", he clarifies what the imperatives of the Law actually meant and the extent of obedience the righteousness of God required of them. And after Jesus finished speaking, "the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority..." (Matthew 7:29). Whereas Moses speaks with a derivative authority, declaring, "the LORD your God says...", Jesus speaks with the authority that no man possesses - " I say to you..."

It seems the greater prophet who comes after and supersedes Moses is the same voice that spoke with such authority that afternoon on the mountain overlooking the Sea of Galilee. The voice of the LORD that spoke to Moses at Sinai came down in the flesh and dwelt among men (John 1:14).

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