Proving that Jesus is the Christ From the Old Testament. Part 14

[Repeat of series introduction that began on 17 December 2023: Where would you go today in the Old Testament to argue that Jesus is the Christ? There’s so much to this that cannot be dismissed. We’re given in many ways what the Messiah would be like, what his character would be, how he’d be received (even by different people), what he’d do, how he’d redeem, that we’d have his lineage, what he’d say, how it would all end, how he’d come and more. So much, and we see it all done in just one man! How would you know that he is the promised Messiah? Jesus’ birth, life, suffering, and glorification all demonstrate the facets of his excellent work. Jesus himself asked two of his disciples the same question I could ask you today, and then went to the same source to explain it that I’d like to go to as well in this series: “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:26-27. Jesus had to suffer to then enter into his glory he said. With this premise, he goes through some measure of the 39 books of the Old Testament revealing himself to them thereby. This is the same Old Testament we have today. I wish we were given the transcript of that talk, but God didn’t wish to give it. But can we see it? Many historical events in the Scriptures could be fulfilled by men and women, but no one but Jesus (Messiah) could fulfill them all. The Lord himself demonstrated that he was and is the Christ, and our New Testament reflects that its writers were well aware of this. The clear approach of the Apostles was to argue the same from the Bible that Jesus read- the 39 books we now call the Old Testament. To know what it means that Jesus is the Christ is to show the fulness of God’s revelation to mankind in the New Testament in him. In the Old Testament, God said he’d defeat sin and death; the New Testament shows us that work done. There are so many ways to talk of this. So many passages. I won’t exhaust them, but in this series, I wish to examine some of these passages. These passages are how I would prove Jesus is the Christ from the Old Testament].
 
In Genesis 22, Abraham is called to offer his son Isaac as an offering to God. He has Ishmael, but his only son from Sarah, Isaac, is that miraculous son of promise that God promised to Abraham back near the start of God’s call on the man. Isaac is what God calls for. This is a test, and God has no intention of seeing Isaac killed. That won’t happen. Abraham suffers tremendously during this time. He loves his son. The promises his God has given him are tied up with him. Ishmael is not the son God promised him and he’s come to know it. Now, he’s being told to kill him. But Abraham knew he’d heard from God on this. The New Testament prophetically reveals to us some two thousand years following that Abraham, “Considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type” in Hebrews 11:19. If God had promised millions of descendants through Isaac, then Isaac had to remain alive. Abraham didn’t know how it was all to work out, but he knew it had to.
The foreshadowing this as of Jesus is the main reason for this entire test. It is almost certainly on this same hill that the Son of God would be sacrificed for the sins of the world thousands of years later. God would not stay his own hand but would deliver him up to die as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of all God’s elect in every generation. Jesus gives us the reality of this in saying, “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, But a body You have prepared for Me…” Men would not offer their own sacrifices any longer. The Son of Man, via his body, would become the final perfecting sacrifice. Hebrews 10:14.  
God says in Proverbs 30:4: “Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His son’s name? Surely you know!” Do you not now know his name? It’s Jesus.” That is his Son’s name. From Abraham himself we have this type of a sacrifice given to us. Isaac was not to be offered. God’s angel prevents it. In Genesis 22:13a it says, “Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns…” It was the Father’s will that the Son offer himself. There was no other way, no other sacrifice, that could be offered in his behalf. The cup would not pass from him to another as it did from Isaac to the ram. The time for foreshadowing the wrath of God was over. Jesus knew it full well but truly became as us in every way yet without sin.
Isaac foreshadows Jesus in his incarnation. Isaac is a type of Christ. His blood was not shed, however. Jesus’ was. Abraham is a type of the Father. The prophet Isaiah says of the Father and the Son: “the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.” Isaiah 53:10. The Father crushed him because it pleased them both to redeem the elect by the sacrifice of himself. Jesus was willing and more than worthy of more than us all.