Foreshadowing of Jesus in the Old Testament

God works in both Old Testament and New Testament times. The one true, eternal living God is God of both testaments. The totality of the Bible is God’s story. In the Old Testament, God forecasts what he will do in the future and who the Messiah will be and what he will do. The New Testament records the fulfillment of these promises and prophecies. The Bible is one big story of God revealing himself to man and working to bring about his plans for man.

Two-thirds of the Bible is the Old Testament where God says many times, “Someone is coming.” He will be a prophet like Moses to whom all the people should listen (Deut. 18:18). He will rebuildthe house of David and rule as king and priest (2 Sam. 7; Psa. 110). He will be the suffering servant of the Lord on whom our sins will be laid (Isa. 53). God will establish his eternal kingdom through him and all peoples, nations and languages will serve him (Dan. 2:44: 7:13-14). God will bring in a new covenant, written in the heart and remember sins no more (Jer. 31:31-34). These are just a few of the many prophecies and promises God makes in the Old Testament about the coming of Jesus.

The New Testament begins with the ministry of John the Baptist who preaches loudly and boldly, “Repent, the time has arrived. The king and his kingdom are here” (Matt. 3:1-3). John introduces Jesus of Nazareth to the world as “the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”(John 1:19-29). Throughout his ministry, Jesus quoted from the Old Testament and said that all the things written about him must be fulfilled. At least sixteen times, the first gospel, Matthew, writes of prophecies being “fulfilled” by the ministry of Jesus (as in 4:14 and 8:17). His disciples (or followers) did not understand how Jesus could be both a king who rules and reigns and a suffering servant who dies (Matt. 16:21-24). Jesus told his disciples at least three times that he would be killed and then raised from the dead (Mark 8:31; 9:9, 31; 10:34) but they did not comprehend what that meant. After his resurrection, he appeared to them and their joy was mixed with unbelief (Lk. 24:41). Jesus interpreted to them the meaning of all things written about him in the Old Testament, including his suffering, death and victory as a result of his resurrection (Lk. 24:26-27, 44-47). Notice how Jesus said that “all the prophets” and “all the Scriptures” speak of him: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (24:27). Apostolic preaching to the Jewish people focused on how Jesus fulfilled and completed the meaning of the prophecies in the Old Testament (as in Acts 2, 13, and 17:1-4). The book of Hebrews is a thorough treatment of how God completes his will for us in Jesus, a will that was prefigured and prophetically pictured in Old Testament worship.