EPISODE 14 THE 'OLD TESTAMENT' POINTS TO JESUS

it was Sunday. We call it Easter Sunday. Two men were walking on the road to Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking about everything that had happened. It was the day Jesus had risen from the dead.

Jesus joined them but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked, “What are you discussing?”

One of them responded, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

“What things? Jesus said.”

Then they described for him Jesus powerful words and deeds and how the religious leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death and crucified him. “We had hoped he would free Israel from Rome,” they said.

Then, this morning, women went to the tomb and found it empty. Angels told them that he was alive. Others went to the tomb and it was empty.

Then Jesus said to them, ‘How slow you are to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ He was referring to the former improbable statements that He had just tested and confirmed concerning his trial, death and resurrection.

Then he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Luke 24:13-27

The Old Testament is filled with the events, symbols and prophecies that point to Jesus as the Messiah.

The shedding of blood as a covering for sin began in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned against God, then realized they were naked. God killed an animal to make a covering for them.

Adam and Eve’s sons offered sacrifices to God. Cain offered vegetables which were from his works but were not pleasing to God who required the symbol of a blood sacrifice. Vegetables do not atone for rebellion.

Abraham was given a son and told that his descendants would become a great nation. Then the Creator instructed Abraham to place his son on an altar and sacrifice him. Abraham was obedient. As he raised his knife he was stopped and told, “Now I know you have not withheld from me your son.” Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the bushes by his horns. The ram was a temporary substitute. The description of this event provides a deeply emotional picture of what God the Father experienced in sacrificing his son – the price for the world’s rebellion and sins.

When Abraham’s descendants were slaves in Egypt, Moses threatened plagues which the Pharaoh ignored. The plagues devastated Egypt. The final plague was the death of all the first-born sons of Egypt. The Hebrews, Abraham’s descendants, would not be harmed if they killed an unblemished lamb and spread its blood on their doorposts. The death did not touch them. The event became known as the ‘Passover.’ It was on the weekend celebration of the Passover that Jesus was crucified. The connection is that Jesus is called “the Lamb of God” who takes away the sin of the world.” He was the perfect and complete sacrifice made available to all mankind. It is God’s gift if we receive it.

For 1400 years the priests sacrificed lambs, goats and bulls. It was a bloody ritual with a purpose. The blood represents how awful sin is, and that sin is punished by death. The scriptures say, “The wages of sin is death.” And, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness for sin.”

The law required the death of animals. But the death of an animal never pays the price of capital punishment - the death penalty cannot be paid with an animal’s blood. The animal’s blood was only a temporary covering. In Israel it had to be performed again and again.

The blood of God’s sacrifice, the blood of ‘God’s Lamb’ His son, was superior to the symbolic blood of Moses’ law. It did not have to be repeated. It fulfilled the law. The perfect sacrifice allows every person access to God’s forgiveness and a relationship with Him.

The Old Testament evidence pointing to Jesus is expressed in many ways:

1) the rejection of the prophets who were also persecuted and killed,

2) symbolic evidence in the temple illustrates the holiness of God,

3) the temple’s holiest place could only be entered by the High Priest once a year. It represented the separation between man and God, caused by sin.

4) Jesus’ perfect sacrifice allows man to come into a personal relationship with God,

5) God’s laws show man his sinfulness and the impossibility of avoiding sin,

points to the need of a savior,

6) The ‘Old Testament’ is filled with symbols, history and prophecies pointing to what Jesus would be and do.

The Old Testament points to a nation and the nation points to a man – the Messiah.

The claims and symbols in the Old Testament were fulfilled in the New Testament. From a scientific perspective, great numbers of claims have been tested by 4000 years of history. The tests are continuous; some in the past, some in the present and some in the future. They point to and from Jesus; a complete story of the purpose of human life.

David J. BergMay 2, 2021