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

by David P. Murray

what did this prophet’s message mean to the

original readers?

What are the historical circumstances?

Similarly we must pause and spend time to figure out the historical and geographical background of the prophets’ messages.

We must ask how the original hearers understood the prophets’ message and how they applied that to their own lives and circumstances.

What kind of writing is this?

The prophets demonstrate to Israel that previous divine prophecies of blessing for obedience and punishment for disobedience are being fulfilled to the letter.

At other times, the prophets do look beyond the past and the present to predict the future.

It is absolutely vital to distinguish between these different kinds of writing.

Similarly we must recognize that our approach to understanding the prophets will vary according to the kind of writing they use.

The language and context are literal rather than symbolic and lead to the expectation of a literal birth in literal

Bethlehem.

STEP 2: THE FULFILLMENT(S) (THE TRACK)

Likewise, when we want to move forward with the prophets to see how their messages were fulfilled down the line, we must choose the right track if we are to arrive at the right destination.

Explicit fulfillment.

Rather, it is rightfully claiming that Old Testament prophets expected Jesus, described Him in considerable detail, and would not have been surprised at the way He fulfilled their predictions.

Implicit fulfillment.

In other prophecies, the predictive element is pl...

Testament fulfillment makes no explicit conn...

“Hindsight” fulfillment.

In some cases the prophetic content of the original Old Testament words becomes clear only in the light of New Testament revelation.

Matthew 13:35 tells us that Jesus’ teaching of the crowd in parables was a fulfillment of Psalm 78:2, which does not appear to be predictive at all in its original context.

Hence all kinds of OT writing (not just prophecies) can be drawn on in relating that promise to Jesus.’”15

Theological fulfillment.

The servant theology of John’s gospel and Philippians 2 is a fulfillment of the well-known Old Testament servant motif.16

Combined fulfillment.

Summary fulfillment.

There can also be multiple fulfillments of a single prophecy.

Many predictions made by Old Testament prophets, also by Jesus and His apostles, commenced fulfillment in events associated with the first coming of Jesus; they continue to be fulfilled in events associated with church history from the New Testament age right up to the present; and they will have consummate or climactic fulfillment in events associated with the second coming of Jesus.

Multiple fulfillments are the result of one prophetic seed growing, expanding, and developing over the years.

Staged fulfillment is the result of the one prediction containing two prophetic seeds, one of which flowers at one stage in history and the other at another, later stage in history.

Sometimes the prophets predict the future using the concepts and language of past events.

The exodus was not only the most important redemptive event in the Old Testament; it also provided the redemptive language and concepts for a large number of prophetic predictions.

In contrast to specific prophecies, many are framed using symbolic language.

It is obvious that with the change in circumstances, unknown at the time the promise was made, the father has more than kept his promise.

The promise was made in terms understood

at the time. It was fulfilled in the light of new historical events.29

“To look for direct fulfillments of, say, Ezekiel in the 20thcentury Middle East is to bypass and short-circuit the reality and the finality of what we already have in Christ as the fulfillment of those great assurances. It is like taking delivery of the motorcar but still expecting to receive a horse.”31

With the exceptions of Hosea and Haggai, all the prophetic books contain messages to the heathen nations that were oppressing God’s people.

Israel’s enemies were national fulfillments of God’s promise of hostility between His Seed and the Devil’s.

So, when we read the prophets’ judgments on these heathen peoples and nations, we are also reading of God’s certain judgment on all the enemies of God’s people throughout history and ultimately and completely at the end of time.37

Just as these nations’ murderous enmity toward Israel demonstrated the Devil’s intention to wipe out the Messiah by wiping out the nation that would father Him, these nations also illustrate and give visible form to the invisible principalities and powers that were ranged against Jesus when He lived in this world.

Therefore, the prophetic messages of doom on the heathen nations prefigure the doom that Jesus heaped upon the spiritual powers behind these persecu...

Although the prophets’ messages contained much that was negative for the nations, there was also, at times, a redemptive purpose in their oracles.

Increasingly heavy Old Testament hints of Gentile inclusion in God’s redemptive purposes find their fulfillment in Christ’s ministry.

He began His earthly ministry in “Galilee of the Gentiles” and promised that they would share in the salvation offered to Israel.42 His last words were full of hope to people in heathen darkness.43

But first let’s look at how the present-day church should hear the messages that God originally gave to Israel.

God speaks an unchanging Word.

Instead of listening to modern human voices, we need to open our ears to God’s ancient voice.

God requires faith and repentance