Seek and You will Find
For the last few weeks, my church has been going through a sermon series called “The Greatest Promise.” In John 5:39, Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!” When He declared this, the New Testament had not been written yet. In fact, most of the New Testament writers were not followers of Jesus yet. The “Scriptures” He referred to were what we would call the Old Testament. For the six weeks leading up to Christmas, we have been looking at six different instances in the Old Testament that point to Jesus.
However, there are hundreds of prophecies, references, and representations of Jesus all throughout the Old Testament. The arrival of Israel’s, and the world’s, Messiah is one of the greatest literary foreshadowings of all time. I set out to find Jesus in all 39 books of the Old Testament, because the setup for a figure this tremendous deserves a closer examination.
Genesis
The first book in Scripture depicts the origin of all Creation: the formation of our world, the fall of mankind, and the beginning of God’s divine rescue plan. Before Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they walked around naked because they had no shame. However, once they took a bite of that forbidden fruit, they hid themselves.
Yes, God essentially cursed them for their disobedience, but He did not act without compassion. Genesis 3:21 says,
And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
In order for Adam and Eve to be covered, an animal had to die. This was a precursor, not just of Israel’s future sacrificial practices, but the sacrifice Jesus would make to redeem us from our sins.
In Genesis, Jesus is the animal slain to cover our guilt and shame.
Exodus
The book of Exodus records Israel’s origin as a nation. After years and years of slavery in Egypt, God sent Moses to free His people. Pharaoh stubbornly refused to release them, so God responded with the famous Ten Plagues. The last plague, in particular, is where we draw our focus. As a final measure against Pharaoh, God sent His Angel of Death across Egypt to reap the lives of every firstborn son. This was for the entire land, including where the Israelites lived.
However, God provided a way for the children to be spared. He gave specific instructions to take a lamb that had no defect. In Exodus 12:6-7, God said,
“Take special care of this chosen animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month. Then the whole assembly of the community of Israel must slaughter their lamb or young goat at twilight. They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the sides and top of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the animal.”
If the Angel of Death saw the blood on the doorframe, that house and its occupants would be spared. From then on, Israel would celebrate this event as Passover, because the Angel of Death passed over their homes.
Several people, including John the Baptist, referred to Jesus in His day as the Lamb of God. Much like in Genesis, this age-old tradition pointed to Him.
In Exodus, Jesus is the Passover Lamb.
Leviticus
We continue in Leviticus, where much of the focus is on the special duties of the Levites and how worship within the tabernacle, a type of mobile temple, was to be conducted. The procedures were quite extensive and detailed.
Because they were human, the Israelites were not always able to follow these duties accurately. Some misdemeanors were heavily punished. For example, Leviticus 16 references a moment where the sons of Aaron, Moses’s brother, were struck dead because they entered God’s sanctuary and burned, as some translations put it, a “strange fire.” God instructs Moses on how Aaron could seek atonement for his family and, for future cases, the rest of Israel.
Amongst the different washings and preparations one had to perform for this atonement, we find an interesting ritual in verses 6 through 10.
“Aaron will present his own bull as a sin offering to purify himself and his family, making them right with the Lord. Then he must take the two male goats and present them to the Lord at the entrance of the Tabernacle. He is to cast sacred lots to determine which goat will be reserved as an offering to the Lord and which will carry the sins of the people to the wilderness of Azazel. Aaron will then present as a sin offering the goat chosen by lot for the Lord. The other goat, the scapegoat chosen by lot to be sent away, will be kept alive, standing before the Lord. When it is sent away to Azazel in the wilderness, the people will be purified and made right with the Lord.”
Essentially, one goat would be sacrificed as a sin offering, and the other would be released into the wilderness to “carry away the people’s sins.” This is where we get the term “scapegoat.”
Many theologians would say that Jesus is represented by the goat slain as the sin offering, like in the previous books, and Barabbas, the criminal released instead of Jesus, mirrored the scapegoat. However, in my humble musings, I believe we can see Jesus in the scapegoat, too. In His death and resurrection, He carried the penalty for our sins away.
In Leviticus, Jesus is the scapegoat.
Numbers
Named after the numberings, or countings, of the Israelites during their 38 years of wandering in the wilderness, the book of Numbers covers the Israelites’ grumbling and rebellious outbursts, and the consequences that followed. And when I say grumbling, I mean they grumbled a lot.
Chapter 21 was no different. Israel was walking around, got impatient, and started complaining and bad mouthing both God and Moses. In response, their camp became infested with venomous snakes. Once they repented of their actions, Moses prayed on their behalf. We find God’s reply in verse 8.
Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!”
Lo and behold, if anyone looked at the snake, they were cured. This is quite similar to the Caduceus and the Rod of Asclepius that you find in hospitals.
Jesus was also attached to a pole, although we would call it a cross nowadays. However, the parallels are very clear. In the same way the Israelites were healed by looking to the snake on the pole, our sins our cleansed when we look to Jesus on the cross.
In Numbers, Jesus is the snake on the pole.
Deuteronomy
Moses wrote the book of Deuteronomy to remind the Israelites of God’s goodness before they entered the Promised Land. He summarized God’s laws, recounted key events, and described the love relationship between God and His people.
In Deuteronomy 18:15, we get a rather direct prophecy of the Messiah.
Moses continued, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.”
Out of all the books in the Old Testament, Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy the most. He did not come to condemn or abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Deuteronomy may dictate the law and the consequences of breaking it, but it was always surrounded by grace. Jesus brought further attention to that grace when the leaders of His day focused more on the semantics.
Furthermore, Jesus and Moses shared a unique similarity: they were both advocates for their people. In the same way Moses bridged the gap between God and the Israelites, Jesus intervenes for us. We’ve seen it when He forgave the lame man’s sins before healing his legs, and when He spared the woman caught in adultery from being stoned while still honoring the law.
In Deuteronomy, Jesus is the prophet foretold by and like unto Moses.
Joshua
The book of Joshua follows Israel’s settling into the Promised Land. Of course, there were some people already living there, so they had to be prepared to defend themselves. Joshua was appointed Israel’s leader after Moses’s passing, and he had quite the task ahead of him.
Prior to the battle at Jericho, Joshua had a rather strange encounter. Take a look at Joshua 5:13-15.
When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?”
“Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the Lord’s army.”
At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. “I am at your command,” Joshua said. “What do you want your servant to do?”
The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did as he was told.
Contrary to popular belief, angels do not make places holy. They serve a holy God, but they themselves cannot influence their surroundings to that degree. Only God can make a site holy. We’ve seen it before with Moses and the burning bush. This is an example of a Christophany, an appearance of God before Jesus’s incarnation or after His resurrection. Abraham had an encounter like that back in Genesis.
Fun fact: “Jesus” is pronounced “Yeshua” in Hebrew and is directly correlated with “Joshua.” Both mean “the Lord saves.” Rather fitting, wouldn’t you say?
In Joshua, Jesus is the Commander of the Lord’s Army.
Judges
The period after the Israelites settled in the Promised Land had many ups and downs. They would stray from God, get invaded and persecuted, repent and return to God, be delivered from their invaders, and then repeat the process. Instead of a central leader like Moses or Joshua, Israel was guided by people called judges. These individuals, like Ehud and Deborah, led Israel through key moments.
Gideon, one of these unexpected judges, even had a Christophany moment in Judges 6. Israel was terrorized by Midian, and an “Angel of the Lord” appeared to Gideon while he was hiding. He then commissioned Gideon as the next judge to save Israel from their persecutors.
Aside from Gideon’s case, Jesus is reflected in the judges’ acts of deliverance. In the same way the judges saved Israel after they repented from their sins, Jesus delivers us from sin’s consequence when we cry out to Him.
In Judges, Jesus is the Judge who rescues us.
Ruth
If Scripture had a section for Hallmark romance movies, this book would be in the top ten. I myself have brainstormed ways to turn this into a movie script. We follow Ruth, a Moabite who immigrated to Israel with her mother-in-law, Naomi. There, she encounters a man named Boaz who saved them from their poverty.
The story has many more nuances than the summary above. One in particular is the customary title of Kinsman Redeemer. In Jewish culture, if the head of the family and direct heirs passed away, all property would be given to a close relative called the kinsman redeemer. There were usually several people in place, just in case someone was unable to redeem the property. Part of the practice included marrying the widow who was left behind.
Despite how much he wanted her, Boaz was not the next in line to redeem Ruth and her property. Instead of whisking her away and ignoring custom, he pursued her in a way that was right by his people and by his God. He went the extra mile, did the extra work, in order to earn her.
Jesus did the same thing. By living a human life, dying a human death, and coming back to life by His own power, He earned the necessary qualifications to redeem us, to pay the debt we accrued from sin.
In Ruth, Jesus is the Kinsman Redeemer.
1st and 2nd Samuel
Here, we read about David and his rise to kingship. David did not start out as an heir to the throne. He didn’t start anywhere near royalty or nobility. Originally, David was a humble shepherd boy. However, with an anointing by the prophet Samuel, one of the biggest 1v1s in history, and further battles and victories, David became the king of Israel. Because of his devotion, God promised him that, so long as he and his descendants honored God and their covenant relationship, a king from David’s line would always be on the throne.
David’s days as a shepherd were not far from his mind. He wrote many psalms that referred to God as our Good Shepherd (see Psalm 23). David was, in a sense, a template for Jesus. Jesus also described Himself as the Good Shepherd, the one who would do everything in His power to find the one lamb that got lost. Both of them started with shepherding sheep and eventually became kings of great note.
Here’s a big kicker: David officially became king at 30 years old. Jesus started His preaching and healing ministry at the same age.
In 1st and 2nd Samuel, Jesus is the Shepherd turned King.
1st and 2nd Kings
Israel’s history under its next kings is depicted here. Although Solomon, David’s son, became famous for his wisdom, none of the other kings were able to live up to the standard David set. They constantly led Israel astray until God had to make good on His promises and had them plundered and exiled from the land.
During this tumultuous time, we see a prophet named Elisha, who becomes another mirror for Jesus. Elijah, Elisha’s mentor, helped prepare him and the people for his coming ministry. John the Baptist, prophesied as the one with the spirit of Elijah, prepared the way for Jesus before His ministry.
An even crazier connection between the two were in their deaths. After Elisha passed, a couple of men were trying to bury their friend when they thought they heard bandits. In their panic, they tossed the corpse on top of Elisha’s bones. The moment it touched, the dead man revived and jumped to his feet (you can find this brief entry in 2nd Kings 13).
Jesus’s moment came in Matthew 27: 41-43, right as He died on the cross.
At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.
We often hear about how Jesus’s death raised us from death, in the spiritual sense that we were dead in our sins and made alive again in Christ. However, this case was far more literal. Multiple people got out of their graves and entered the city. The people who saw all of this happen exclaimed, “Surely, He was the Son of God!”
In 1st and 2nd Kings, Jesus is the Prophet raising the dead to life, even in death.
1st and 2nd Chronicles
Chronicles was written to remind the Israelites that they were still God’s chosen people, even though they had just returned from captivity. Much of this text focuses on genealogies, specifically Judah’s and Levi’s lines because they validated the lines of royalty and priesthood.
The Israelites were very big on genealogies. The further back you could list your ancestors, the more prestige you had in addition to whom your ancestors were. If you could trace your lineage all the way back to Adam, you had some serious bragging rights.
There are two genealogies for Jesus listed in the New Testament, one in Matthew and one in Luke. Although both of them use Joseph’s name, the genealogy listed in Luke is Mary’s line. When you trace back the names, you see that Joseph was descended from the line of Judah and Mary was descended from the line of Levi. Jesus was the living descendant of both Israel’s royalty and priesthood.
In 1st and 2nd Chronicles, Jesus is Israel’s King and Priest.
Ezra
After years of exile, the Israelites were slowly able to return to their homeland under the direction of King Cyrus of Persia. Once in Jerusalem, they offered money to rebuild the temple. The temple was seen as a physical manifestation of God’s promise to His people. The sooner they could get it rebuilt, the better.
A man named Zerubbabel took point on this rebuilding project. As a leader, he served as an almost messianic role for the Israelites. However, he could not truly fulfill that messiah role the way God had planned. While he was of the line of David, he worked as a servant of another nation. He did, however, model how Jesus as Messiah would look: one who guides and protects his people.
In Ezra, Jesus is the Messiah, mirrored by Zerubbabel.
Nehemiah
Nehemiah entered the rebuilding scene shortly after Ezra. Many of Israel’s neighbors did not like the idea of them reconstructing the temple and, by extension, the city of Jerusalem. They used a multitude of ways to get in the way of the rebuilding effort, including some unsavory physical ones. It’s here that the laborers carried their tools in one hand and a weapon in the other, just in case they were attacked mid-construction.
A recurring theme throughout the book is Prayer. Nehemiah relied on it heavenly, from a quick prayer for response to King Artaxerxes to how to handle their nefarious neighbors. Jesus put heavy emphasis on prayer, as well. He instructed His disciples on how to pray and modeled it through His own actions. Even when He wished for His own crucifixion to pass without Him, He still honored God through His prayers and continued in God’s rescue plan.
In Nehemiah, Jesus is the Prayerful Leader.
Esther
Esther’s narrative was included to explain why the festival of Purim was celebrated. It came about when Esther, a Jewish girl turned queen consort to King Xerxes, rescued all of the Israelites from a death order crafted by a jealous adviser. Through careful planning you’d see in a Netflix political drama, Esther exposed the plot against her people and found great favor in the king.
Although God is not specifically mentioned in Esther’s narrative, you can see His protective hand at work. In the same way that Esther intervened for her people, Jesus intervenes for us. We, like Israel, could not get a direct line to the King when we were doomed to die. Jesus, and Esther, became that new line of salvation.
In Esther, Jesus is our Advocate.
Job
The book of Job paints a very interesting picture about suffering and justice. Job, a righteous man, is suddenly stripped of his possessions, his children, and his health. This seemingly out-of-the-blue consequence becomes a topic of serious debate between Job and his friends. Job questions God about what he did to deserve his situation, and his friends claim he’s being punished for something he didn’t do.
However, all of them get called out at the end of the book, because God does not operate under an action-reward system. He works outside of the realm of “what’s fair and what’s not.” He’s not about score-keeping. Instead, He prioritizes justice and compassion.
We see that properly illustrated in Jesus. As part of God’s divine rescue plan, Jesus died in our place in order to meet the demands of justice and show compassion on us, who couldn’t save ourselves. We didn’t deserve God’s love and mercy, but He showered us with them anyway.
In Job, Jesus is the Just and Compassionate God.
Psalms
I mentioned earlier about Jesus being likened to a shepherd. David used that imagery plenty of times in the Psalms. However, one particular Psalm, Psalm 22, draws a very vivid illustration of Jesus’s death.
Verse 1:
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far away when I groan for help?
When Jesus hung on the cross, one of the last things He said was, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” Translated, it means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” This was a direct, intentional callback to David’s Psalm.
Verses 6-8:
But I am a worm and not a man.
I am scorned and despised by all!
Everyone who sees me mocks me.
They sneer and shake their heads, saying,
“Is this the one who relies on the Lord?
Then let the Lord save him!
If the Lord loves him so much,
let the Lord rescue him!”
While Jesus was on the cross, the religious leaders called similar harassment from the sidelines. “He trusted God. Let God come down and save Him!”
Verses 15-16:
My life is poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax,
melting within me.
My strength has dried up like sunbaked clay.
My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
You have laid me in the dust and left me for dead.
My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs;
an evil gang closes in on me.
They have pierced my hands and feet.
Going from bottom to top, there are some very clear similarities between this Psalm and the crucifixion scene.
“Pierced hands and feet” is quite specific, but it’s more than just simply impaling someone’s limbs. Crucifixion was death by suffocation and exposure to the elements. Because of the way you hung, you’d have to push up on the nail in your feet to get air. Once the pain became too much to bear, you’d have to drop back down and cut off your airflow. It could take days to die from this.
For the “life poured out like water” part, one of the soldiers stabbed Jesus with a spear to make sure he was actually dead. According to the gospel of John, water and blood poured from the wound. Blood and water in the body is a sign of cardiac arrest, further alluding to David’s Psalm.
Verse 18:
They divide my garments among themselves
and throw dice for my clothing.
The Roman soldiers gathered around the execution site gambled for Jesus’s only earthly possessions, which happened to be the clothes on His back.
The Psalms were written between 1010 and 930 BC. This means they were written almost one thousand years before Jesus’s crucifixion. The similarities are uncanny.
In Psalms, Jesus is the One Abandoned.
Proverbs
Proverbs is a book chock full of Godly wisdom, challenging us to be better than the day before. Wisdom is often personified as a woman calling from the city gate. She rallies the foolish to her so they can receive wise counsel and the benefits that come with it.
Jesus, too, called to everyone He came across, inviting them into a kingdom of heavenly proportions. His lessons and parables illustrated Godly living and how to live wisely. One of His most famous teachings that fell in line with the wisdom of Proverbs was the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5-7.
In Proverbs, Jesus is Wisdom calling from the gate.
Ecclesiastes
This book was written by Solomon, close to the end of his life. Although he started out as the wisest man in the world, when life grew successful, he slipped. He married multiple women as part of political marriages, and, in trying to please them, allowed their homelands’ gods to be worshiped within his kingdom. This led both him and the rest of Israel astray. He became what many call an apostate, someone who renounces a religious or political belief.
It wasn’t until the twilight of his life that he started to turn back to God. He looked at all he had acquired and saw how meaningless it all was. The riches, the fame, the kingdom’s peace and stability; none of it mattered. He still felt empty inside.
It was then he rediscovered a core element. Much of what he gained was through his own hands, and it numbed him. However, when he still served God faithfully, everything felt fulfilling and joyful. His conclusion: without God, everything in life is meaningless.
Jesus made some bold statements that lined up with Solomon’s line of thought. For example, in John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Life without God is meaningless, and the only way to God is through Jesus. Therefore, when you go to Jesus, you reach the Father, and then your life gains meaning and joy.
In Ecclesiastes, Jesus is the Meaning of Life.
Song of Solomon
And now we come to one of the spiciest books in the Bible. I’ll let the married couples dig into that one, but for those who may not be ready for that sort of imagery, Song of Solomon is a conversation between a husband and wife with occasional interjections from their friends. The married couple exchange pleasantries, encouragement, and sultry commentary, while the friends rejoice that these two have found and love each other. It illustrates a love that God approves of: loyal, intimate, and valuing each other.
Wedding feasts were a common setting for Jesus’s parables. Through them, He paints Himself as the bridegroom that has come for us, His bride. In Ephesians 5, husbands are told to love their wives in the same way the Christ loves the church. How did Jesus show His love for His followers? He healed them, cared for them, and died for them.
In Song of Solomon, Jesus is the loving Bridegroom.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel
I have to combine these three together because, although they have different ways of wording it, Jesus shows up the same way in all of them: He is the prophesied Heir to David’s throne.
As I mentioned earlier, God promised David that, so long as he honored the Lord, one of his descendants would sit on Israel’s throne. That covenant still holds true. Jesus comes directly from David’s line. The previous kings’ rules ended because they died and stayed dead. Jesus needs no heir because He rose to life again. Ergo, His rule still continues.
In Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, Jesus is David’s Branch and Heir.
Lamentations
Lamentations is noted to be the only book in the Old Testament that is comprised solely of laments. It was written after Babylon had invaded and decimated Jerusalem. The city was left in ruins and hundreds, if not thousands, of people had been carried off into exile. The author of Lamentations mourns for the destruction, but admits that this is due to Israel’s unfaithfulness to their covenant with God. Amidst the repentance, he prophesies a coming restoration for the people.
That restoration came with Jesus. His words and actions brought healing and repentance. Even today, He still brings hope and turns people back to God, restoring that covenant relationship with Him.
In Lamentations, Jesus is Hope Restored.
Daniel
The book of Daniel is an incredible combination of historical narrative and divine prophecy. We get classic tales like the Lions’ Den and the Fiery Furnace, and we see snippets of prophetic dreams featuring winged beasts of many shapes and sizes.
One particular prophecy that shows up within the narrative section is when Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The king saw a vision of a statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, a waist of bronze, legs of iron, and feet made of a mixture of clay and iron. At the end of the dream, a massive rock flew in and struck the statue’s feet, sending the whole thing crashing to the ground.
Daniel revealed that each section of the statue represented the current and coming kingdoms. Gold was Babylon, silver was Persia, bronze was Greece, iron was Rome, and the iron-clay mix was Rome divided. The rock that took them all down was an eternal kingdom that God would establish.
When Jesus entered the scene, He heralded the arrival of His Father’s kingdom, but it would not work like the kingdoms that preceded it. This one would not be bound by borders nor people. Instead of gathering in one place, its citizens could and would spread out across the entire Earth. It completely crushes the world’s preconceived ideas of how kingdoms should be. That is why Christians can live all around the world and still stand united. We don’t answer to a human king, but one that reigns eternal.
In Daniel, Jesus is the Stone that founds the Kingdom of God.
Hosea
Another one of the Bible’s spicey books, but not quite for the same reason as Song of Solomon. The prophet Hosea was charged by God to take a prostitute in as his wife. This was done to illustrate God’s relationship with the spiritually promiscuous Israelites. Despite Hosea providing her with food, shelter, and children, his wife would still return to her old way of life.
After one particular outing, she found herself on the auction block. Instead of demanding his wife back or growing violent with her or the men around her, Hosea bought her at the posted price. He paid the necessary fee to bring her home.
Jesus acted the same way. We were bound to a debt of perpetual sin, one that could only be paid for with death. The Israelites had animal sacrifices, but an animal’s death could not fully pay the price for a human’s sin, hence why they sacrificed over and over and over again. Jesus, as the untainted human, paid for our lives with His. Now, that price had been met in full, and we, the Bride of Christ, can go back home.
In Hosea, Jesus is the prophet who bought back his wife.
Joel
The book of Joel foretells a coming disaster analogous to a swarm of locusts. The author calls on everyone to repent before this awful day arrives. However, it is not all doom and gloom. The request for return is met with a promise of renewed hope. Peace and resources would come back to the land. Furthermore, Chapter 2 brings an interesting addition in verses 28 and 29.
“Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants—men and women alike.”
Technically, we see this revealed after Jesus’s death and resurrection. Jesus told His disciples that He was going to leave them again, but would send a helper during his absence. Later, when they gathered together in a room, the disciples were suddenly overcome with God’s Spirit. They spoke in tongues and prophesied to the people around them, much to the onlookers’ amazement.
In Joel, Jesus is the One who Baptizes with God’s Holy Spirit.
Amos
Amos was a herdsman from a small town in Judah who prophesied God’s will to northern Israel. He called for social justice and spoke in great detail about God’s righteousness. Amidst his cries for reform and warnings of God’s judgment, Amos puts out an interesting prophecy in verse 8 of chapter 9.
“In that day,” says the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth while it is still day.
We saw this take place at Jesus’s death. After a late night arrest and an early morning of trials, Jesus was crucified around midday. The moment He gave up the ghost, the sky turned dark. Everyone there saw it, and those who were familiar with Amos’s prophecy knew that something big had just gone down.
In Amos, Jesus is the One whose death darkened the sky.
Obediah
Obediah addresses an ongoing feud between Israel and the Edomites. Edom was descended from Esau, who was originally supposed to receive the blessing to carry out God’s promise to Abraham. Israel was named after Israel, the new name of Esau’s younger brother, Jacob. Jacob had cheated Esau out of his birthright, and Obediah claims that the Edomites are still sore over that, hence why they continually harassed and invaded Israel. He prophesies Edom’s inevitable comeuppance and destruction.
God promised that a savior would come from Abraham’s seed. Despite his underhanded and self-serving tactics, Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, was still chosen to point toward that savior. Regardless of how cheated the Edomites felt, God’s divine rescue plan was still going to be fulfilled through Jacob’s line. And, as we discussed prior, Jesus came directly from that line.
In Obediah, Jesus is the Savior from Abraham’s seed and rightful heir to his promise.
Jonah
Throughout His ministry, many people asked, if not demanded, Jesus to show them proof of His divinity. Often times, these demands were from religious leaders who would not have believed His claims, even though they saw His miracles all the time. In Matthew 12:39, we see Him shut down their requests.
But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.
His listeners were all very familiar with Jonah’s tale. Jonah was a prophet who had been tasked with delivering a warning and call to repentance to the people of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Rather than give Israel’s enemies a chance to avoid destruction, Jonah hopped a ship and sailed in the opposite direction. A storm blew in, and the only way to calm it was to throw Jonah overboard. One massive sea creature later, and Jonah was sitting in stomach acid for three days before being spat back onto shore to do what God told him to do.
This “sign of Jonah” was fulfilled in Jesus’s death and resurrection. He had an important, life-saving message, but was put outside the city to die. Once dead, He was buried in a tomb and rose again on the third day.
In Jonah, Jesus is the prophet buried in the depths for three days.
Micah
The messages in this book alternated between doom and hope, between judgment and deliverance. One of those hope messages can be found in Chapter 5, verse 2:
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
are only a small village among all the people of Judah.
Yet a ruler of Israel,
whose origins are in the distant past,
will come from you on my behalf.
The year that Jesus was born, Caesar August called for a census of all the lands he ruled. This included Israel at the time. Everyone had to return to their hometowns to be counted. What a coincidence that Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to take part, just in time for Jesus to be born.
I love how it adds the note that the ruler from Israel’s origins were “in the distant past.” This backs up Jesus’s claims that He was with God since the beginning of creation. When questioned about Him claiming to be greater than Abraham, He dropped an amazing smackdown response: “When Abraham was, I Am.” There’s a lot more to unpack than just the convenience of English grammar used, so I’ll save that for another time.
In Micah, Jesus is the Ruler of Israel who hails from Bethlehem.
Nahum
Despite Jonah’s warning a couple of books back, the people of Nineveh eventually reverted to their old wicked ways, especially in their treatment towards Israel. Nahum takes three chapters to declare Nineveh the target for God’s wrath and prophesy its coming destruction.
For Israel, Nahum predicts a coming peace. Once Israel had been avenged, they would be able to celebrate and honor their covenant relationship with God once more. Jesus brought that same message of peace in His ministry on Earth. He became the seed of the woman in Genesis who would crush the serpent’s head through His death and resurrection. With His victory over the enemy, we as His followers can now celebrate and honor our covenant relationship with God once more.
In Nahum, Jesus is the Avenger of God’s Chosen.
Habbakuk
Habbakuk wrote this book as a conversation between himself and God. Having noticed the sin and corruption of the people around him, Habbakuk asked God two questions that many people ask today: “Where are you?” and “Why are you letting this happen?” God reveals His plans to use Israel’s enemies to punish its evildoers and that both His people and the enemies of His people would receive their judgment.
Habakkuk responds with a prayer for Israel to look back at God’s faithfulness in their storied history. Regardless of the circumstances or how badly they suffered from their deserved consequences, God would deliver them. All of this pointed toward our deliverance from sin through Jesus.
In Habbakuk, Jesus is God’s Faithful Deliverance.
Zephaniah
The book of Zephaniah was written during one of the Israelites’ moral plummets. As they were warned multiple times by other prophets, they were priming themselves for judgment that would come in the form of Babylonian invasion.
However, Zepheniah ends the book with promises of God’s love and mercy. We don’t get to see the resolution to that mercy at the end of Zepheniah, but we do know who embodies it later: Jesus. While He called out those who should have known better, He showered the repentant with love and mercy.
In Zephaniah, Jesus is God’s Mercy.
Haggai
During the reigns of Cyrus and Darius of Persia, the Israelites were allowed to rebuild the temple. Speaking through the prophet Haggai, God encouraged His people through the restoration project, to raise the temple from the rubble.
Jesus made a claim that He would “destroy this temple and raise it again in three days.” The people thought He spoke of the temple rebuilt during Haggai’s day. In truth, He referred to Himself, and the temple destroyed for three days predicted HIs resurrection.
In Haggai, Jesus is the Temple restored.
Zechariah
Zechariah was also written during the temple’s rebuilding. Amongst the visions he had, he saw a righteous King, a Branch from David, who would come and sit on Israel’s throne.
Now, I could have included this in the prior grouping for “David’s Branch and Heir,” but Zechariah adds a notable detail to this coming ruler. From chapter 12 through chapter 14, he foretells that the people will look upon this King who had been pierced, a fountain that cleanses sin and impurity. Despite the sad imagery of an injured ruler, this ultimately concludes with God’s victory.
Jesus claimed to be setting up a new kingdom, and His enemies worked to get rid of Him. When He was given over to be crucified, Pilate, the governor of the region, had a sign written and mounted above Jesus’s head. It read “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Although the religious leaders asked Pilate to change the wording, Pilate blew them off and refused. In doing so, he fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy.
In Zechariah, Jesus is the Pierced King.
Malachi
After the temple had been rebuilt, Israel’s morality had begun to falter again. The people suffered, but they responded to it with indifference rather than faithfulness. Malachi calls them out on their behavior, their blemished sacrifices, dishonesty, and cheating God out of His offerings.
If the people did turn from their wicked ways, Malachi promises the arrival of an interesting individual. Look at Chapter 4, verse 2:
“But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.
Again, we see an image of Jesus. Aside from the Sun-Son pun, Jesus healed many people who were sick and suffering. Some of them were lame, and when He restored their ability to walk, they leapt for joy, running around and telling everyone what He had done.
In Malachi, Jesus is the Sun of Righteousness.
And there we have it: Jesus in every book of the Old Testament. Even with a list as extensive as this, there are still many other prophecies and references I did not cover. The intricacy in Scripture’s foreshadowing, woven together in 39 volumes spanning hundreds of years in their writing, is nothing short of divine. And through all this divine revelation, we see that everything points to one thing: Jesus.