When we read the Bible, we can easily gravitate towards the stories of Jesus and the early Church in the New Testament. The Old Testament books, with all their detailed descriptions of rituals and sacrifice, sometimes violent stories and long sections of poetry can seem quite daunting. However, as The Bible Course points out, the Old Testament is key to understanding the New Testament. It’s all part of the big story that points to Jesus.

The Old Testament helps us to see more of who Jesus is in both direct and indirect ways.

Direct

The messianic prophecies are one of the most significant ways Jesus is present in the Old Testament. These prophecies gave details about what the Messiah would say and do, hundreds of years before Jesus was born.

One of the most well-known of these prophecies is in Isaiah 52.13—53.12, the fourth of what are often called the songs of the Suffering Servant. The prophecy says that the Messiah would be ‘pierced for our transgressions’ and tells us ‘by his wounds we are healed’. It foretells that the Messiah would bear the sins of many, which is exactly what Jesus would go on to do.

There are many more examples of these glimpses of Jesus and his identity as the Messiah in the Old Testament. Try looking up Isaiah 7.14, Psalm 2 or Psalm 22.

There is also a tradition which suggests the ‘Angel of the Lord’ who appears in a number of Old Testament stories can be identified with Jesus. You can read more about this tradition in this article.

Indirect

As well as prophecies about Jesus’ life and ministry, there are people and events which provide glimpses of Jesus in the Old Testament. A technical word for this is ‘typology’. It’s a way of reading about events and people, and finding glimpses of Jesus in these stories. Like the prophecies, they point towards the Messiah, but in a less direct way.

An example of an indirect glimpse of Jesus is the Exodus story. Just as God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt, Jesus leads his people out of their bondage to sin and into a new kind of freedom.

We also see Jesus in the sacrificial system, where an animal died as a way of securing God’s forgiveness for wrongdoing. Similar examples are the ram that God provided to Abraham when he was commanded to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, and David conquering the giant Goliath. These events foreshadow the sacrifice Jesus would make, and the victory he would win over sin and death.

Glimpses of Jesus can also be seen in specific characters in the Old Testament. These characters can also be called ‘types’ because they display characteristics of Jesus, and foreshadow him in specific ways.

Joseph suffers innocently, but ends up victorious and saves many lives foreshadowing the death and ultimate victory of Jesus.

Queen Esther puts herself in harm’s way to save her people from destruction, again foreshadowing the ministry of Jesus who was also born ‘for such a time as this’.

Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days, before he emerged alive to proclaim the good news of grace to sinners, another foreshadowing of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The list goes on! Many stories of ordinary people in the Old Testament point forward to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Try reading the stories of people like Joshua, Ruth and Hosea, and asking what they reveal about Jesus.

Although the Old Testament mainly tells us the story of God’s people before the coming of the Messiah, it can still give us glimpses of Jesus. The big story points to him in many different ways, and reading the Old Testament with this perspective can give us a fresh understanding of the Bible story as a whole.

Not every story, event or character has this function and it can sometimes be hard to see how it all hangs together. Reading the Old Testament is like going on an adventure. We can enjoy the whole journey, but at times also experience particularly stunning views of who Jesus is. It might take some digging, but these glimpses of Jesus do help us understand more of Jesus’ character, and his central place in God’s big story.

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