Jesus on Every Page: 10 Simple Ways to Seek and Find Christ in the Old Testament

by David P. Murray

He did not see the need to relate everything to the big picture; he could find the big picture even in the small pictures.

Christ began to exercise the office of mediator between God and man as soon as man fell because mercy began to be exercised towards man immediately.4

And that he immediately banished his great enemy, the devil whom he had undertaken to conquer, and rescued those two first captives.

“was instituted immediately after God had revealed the covenant of grace in Gen. 3:15, which covenant and promise was the foundation on which the custom of sacrificing was built.”6

Abel’s soul was the first that went to heaven through Christ’s redemption.

And in him the angels began first to do the part of ministering spirits to Christ in going forth to conduct the souls of the redeemed to glory.

the days of Enos, in which men began “to call upon the name of the LORD,”8 were the “first remarkable pouring out of the Spirit of God that ever was. There had [been] a saving work of God in the hearts of some before, but now God was pleased to grant a more large effusion of his Spirit for the bringing in an harvest of souls to Christ.”9

We must not think that the Holy Spirit began to be given at pentecost. At pentecost the Holy Spirit was given in greater measure and to a greater number. But as Old Testament believers were “dead in trespasses and sins,” they could not begin to believe or repent without the Holy Spirit.

This difference in degree and depth must not lead us to deny the Holy Spirit’s constant indwelling work in Old Testament believers.

Without the Holy Spirit constantly in and at work in our hearts, believers would immediately apostatize.

“Now this translation of Enoch was the first instance that ever was of restoring the ruins of the fall with respect to the body. There had been many instances of restoring the soul of man by Christ’s redemption, but none of redeeming and actually saving the body till now.”

Edwards regarded Jesus and His redemption not only as the climax of redemptive history but also as an integral, constant part of all redemptive history.

to consider how Jesus Himself was educated, motivated, and guided by the histories of the Old Testament.

We are not here speaking of Jesus’ divine mind, which was all-knowing. We are speaking of His finite and limited human mind. He was not born with perfect knowledge of everything. There were things He did not know—even divine things.18

I find myself aware that in reading the Hebrew Scriptures I am handling something that gives me a closer common link with Jesus than any archaeological artifact could do.

In short, the deeper you go into understanding the Old Testament, the closer you come to the heart of Jesus. (After all, Jesus never actually read the New Testament!)19

How much did Jesus learn directly, via the ministry of the Spirit?

Did His human mind ever access His divine mind?

let’s be careful to guard the typical ordinariness of His maturing humanity.

It was the Old Testament which helped Jesus to understand Jesus.

Above all, imagine what He learned about Himself from the nation of Israel. The New Testament presents Jesus as the perfect fulfillment and embodiment of all that Israel was meant to be and yet failed to be.

God completed through Jesus what had been left undone by Israel.

The moral and spiritual principles of the Old Testament are prominent in Jesus’ life and teaching. Throughout His whole life, He turned to these Scriptures to give Him clear guidance and direction, especially in resisting temptation.

Although many think that these “blessings” are something new, both form and content are from the Old Testament.

As we have seen, Jesus learned much about Himself from His study of what Israel was meant to be.

“Jesus came to a people who knew how to pray, and to sing. The rich heritage of worship in Israel was part of the very fabric and furniture of the mind of Jesus. So it is not at all surprising to find him often quoting from the Psalms, even with his dying breath.”35

next time you read the Psalms, why not think about how Jesus read them and sang them?

Luke is saying that every aspect of Jesus’ development into full manhood (intellectually, spiritually, and socially) was ordinary not extraordinary.

The questions He asked those rabbis were part of the learning process, not some backhanded way of showing the rabbis up. He was truly learning from them and processing what they taught Him.

“He repeatedly is represented as seeking knowledge through questions, which undoubtedly were not asked only to give the appearance of a dependence on information from without that was not real with him: he is made to express surprise; and to make trial of new circumstances.”37

one who is all that God is and at the same time all that man is:

But before we look at the prophets’ Christ-centered message, let’s pause a moment to consider the Christ-centered nature of the prophets’ office.

There, Moses told us that the office of the Old Testament prophet was designed, instituted, and developed by God to prepare His people for Jesus Christ, His ultimate and final Prophet.

Therefore, when we read the Old Testament prophets, we should look for the aspects or features of their office or ministry that predict the prophetic office of Jesus Christ.

First, consider the reason for prophets. They were needed to stand between God and sinners and to speak God’s word in God’s place.

And despite God’s raising up and sending great prophets throughout the Old Testament, the Israelites realized that the greatest prophet had still not come.

Every Old Testament prophet reminds us of our need for a prophetic mediator and anticipates God’s provision of Jesus Christ, the Prophet.

The divine calling and commissioning of every Old Testament prophet point toward the divine calling and commissioning of Jesus Christ, the Prophet.

Every designation or description of a prophet reveals a little about the one Prophet who fitted these designations perfectly, Jesus Christ.

The prophet’s message was the result not of his own reasoning, insight, or observations but of divine revelation.

The carefulness and faithfulness with which the prophets heard and spoke the exact words of God, no more and no less, build expectation of the supreme carefulness and faithfulness with which Jesus Christ, the Prophet, heard and spoke what God revealed to Him.7

Fifth, the prophet had a covenantal role.

The use of similar emissarial language in the prophets’ speeches deepens our understanding of the prophet’s role. Jehovah was the great Suzerain who sent prophets as His mediators and emissaries to ensure

covenant faithfulness in His vassal, Israel, to prosecute covenant violations, and to ensure the safety and prosperity of the faithful.

Sixth, all the prophets faced opposition and rejection.

The rejection of God’s messengers and their messages prefigured the rejection of God’s greatest Messenger and Message, Jesus Christ.

Seventh, let me underline that the prophetic office was ultimately realized in Christ.

there was a divinely in-built inadequacy in the office of the Old Testament prophet and in all who tried to fill that office.

Every deficiency or inadequacy in the Old Testament prophets contrasts with the fullness and perfection of Jesus Christ, the Prophet of God. We see that looking back, but the Old T...

STEP 1: THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE