Tuesday, June 11, 2024

In the Old as in the New

 

What is the Old Testament and the New Testament? What is the difference  between the two? - Biblword.net

 

I met a man

Yet I never saw him

I must be strange you say

Or my vision dim

 

“Couldn’t be day

Or must have been night

To meet a man and not see him

Must be out of sight.”

 

You could meet him too

I’ll show him to you

In the Old Testament

As well as the New

 

“Do you mean Adam?”

No not at all

This man is unlike Adam

In that he didn’t fall

 

“Couldn’t be Abraham

Or Moses or Job

So who is this man?

Please ease my load.”

 

His name is Jesus

Surely you have heard

Or may have read about him

In God’s Holy Word

 

Bible Answers to Spiritual Questions - Difference between old testament and new  testament - Part 2 - Buffalo Wy. Church Of Christ

 

He’s in the New Testament

“That I have been told.”

Yes, but I will also show Him

Right there in the Old

 

Jesus is the Light

That’s a good place to start

Wherever he is

Darkness must depart

 

In him is no darkness

Only just light

He is the light source

And the prototype

 

“I am the light of the world”

He assuredly declared

In John 8 verse 12

Those exact words appear

 

What Does John 1:3 Mean?

 

He’s also the Word

Through whom all was created

In John chapter one

Right there it’s related

 

Jesus made references

To himself in the Old

So let’s start with the New

To see what there he told

 

Luke 24:27

And beginning at Moses

And all of the prophets

Jesus showed them the scriptures

About himself for their benefit

 

In Luke 24:44

He reinforces this

In his very words

So you shouldn’t miss

 

He references Moses’ law

The prophets and the psalms

Of course back in the Old Testament

He was not a man

 

“For had ye believe Moses

Ye would have believed me.

Moses wrote of me,” Jesus said.

Go to John 5:46 and you’ll see

 

For the only place in the Bible

Where a woman had seed

Go to Genesis 3 verse 15

And there you will read

 

A prophecy about Jesus

And of Salvation’s plan

That God would put into action

To redeem fallen man

 

In verse 20 of Matthew 1

The angel to Joseph revealed

That which was in Mary

Was of the Holy Ghost conceived

 

Abraham rejoiced

For having seen the Lord

When Jesus told the Jews this

It they greatly abhorred

 

Turn to John 8:56

See the narrative unfold

They said to him,

“You’re not even fifty years old.”

 

Maybe in the land of Moriah

Abraham had a glimpse

Or perhaps Melchizedek

Was is a plausible hint

 

Abraham sacrifices Isaac - Gospelimages

 

On a mountain in Moriah

God stayed Abraham’s hand

Rather than slaying Isaac

In the thicket was a ram

 

Jesus would eventually come

To be the sacrificial Lamb

Isaac did not qualify

He was not the God-Man

 

Melchizedek met Abraham

When he was returning from battle

Of the spoils he gave him a tenth

See Hebrews the 7th chapter

 

Melchizedek was no mere man

His qualities clearly show

These were qualities of Christ

Check verses 1 through 4

 

Without father without mother

No beginning of days or end

Without natural descent

King of righteousness and of Salem

 

Not only King of peace

But a priest that abides continually

Made like unto the Son of God

Sounds like the I Am of eternity

 

Then there are the Messianic Psalms

They show the Christ so clearly

Psalm 22 is one for sure

Detailing his decease at Calvary

 

“I am poured out like water

And all my bones are out of joint

They pierced my hands and my feet.”

That’s enough to make the point

 

This was not David’s experience

But a prophecy of the Christ

The result of a miscarriage of justice

That would end in his sacrifice

 

“What think ye of Christ?” Jesus asked

And “Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” was the reply

That came from the Pharisees

 

If David called Christ Lord

How could Christ be his son?

This baffled the Pharisees

For an answer there was none

 

The account is given in Matthew 22

From verses 41 through 45

It references the 110th Psalm

Of which David was the scribe

 

David had spoken in the Spirit

As Jesus himself explained

Right there in the Old Testament

We see the presence of Christ again

 

The Law, the Prophets and the Writings, Part 24: The Vision of Isaiah

 

Isaiah must not be left out

For he also saw the Lord

Not the Father as thought about

But Jesus Christ the Word

 

He saw him upon a throne

That was high and lifted up

Isaiah 6 verse 1 and John 12:41

Go to those passages and take a look

 

Isaiah reveals more

Come with me and see

He speaks of Christ’s rejection

In Isaiah chapter 53

 

The entire chapter summarizes it

From the first verse to the last

The basic verb tenses are mentioned there

The future, the present and the past

 

“He shall grow up,” says verse 2

“He is despised and rejected,” verse 3

“He hath borne our griefs,” in verse 4

“He was wounded,” in verse 5 we see.

 

He was oppressed and afflicted

But his mouth he opened not

He was cut off from the land of the living

The transgressors’ penalty was his lot

 

In Jeremiah chapter 31

Reading verses 31 through 34

We see another reference to the Christ

Perhaps you didn’t see it before

 

It speaks of the New Testament

Right back there in the Old

Where God will forgive iniquity

And remember sins no more

 

“This cup,” Jesus says in Luke 22

“Is the New Testament in my blood:

As oft as you drink it

In remembrance of me you should.”

 

In the book of Leviticus

We read of feasts and festivals

Each one points to Jesus Christ

From Passover to the Feast of Tabernacles

 

The Passover speaks of his crucifixion

The unleavened bread of his sinless-ness

The Festival of first fruits is the resurrection

Of the King of righteousness

 

Festival of trumpets: Israel and the church

The Day of Atonement is yet future

Feasts of Tabernacles: the millennium kingdom

The rapture: no one knows for sure

 

Christ is the focus of each of these

In the Old as well as the New

The Old not only points forward to him

But he is right there in presence too

 

There are several Theophanies

Which depict Jesus in the Old

Let’s hear from the mouths of witnesses

Just as the scriptures have told

 

Maybe some would like to know

What Theophany really means

It’s a combination of two words

See from the following what you can glean

 

(Theo-) has to do with God

(-Phany) means to make manifest

Put together: what do we have?

A manifestation of God more or less

 

No man has seen God at anytime

Jesus makes this very clear

Jesus himself he has declared Him

To me that’s so precious and dear

 

With this in mind

Let’s sweep through the Old

Let’s seek out the eyewitnesses

And see what did unfold

 

In Daniel chapter 3:24 and 25

Into the fire three were thrown

But there was another the king confessed

And the Son of God was that one

 

In the night visions Daniel tells

He beheld one like the Son of man

For a description of this gripping scene

Read beginning at Daniel 7 verse 13

 

In the book of Judges and chapter 6

We read of the valiant Gideon

Seeing an angel of the Lord he was afraid

And felt that he was done

 

And the Lord said to him in verse 23

“Fear not thou shalt not die.”

I could imagine the relief he felt

Poor old Gideon must have sighed

 

Manoah and his wife had a similar experience

In Judges chapter 13

Like Jacob they had seen God face to face

And it was not in a dream

 

In Genesis 32

Jacob wrestled with God

And noted his life was preserved

Manoah and wife continued to live

But for a bit were disturbed.

 

An interesting thing about Melchizedek

Is in serving Abraham bread and wine

I guess being a priest of the most high God

He was looking forward to another time

 

For certainly Christ had not yet died

His coming would not be for a while

But this focus on the communion emblems

Could not be just for style

 

Luke 22:17-20

And Jesus took bread and broke it

“This bread is my body

Which is given for you

Do this in remembrance of me.

 

This cup is the New Testament

In my blood, which is shed for you.”

Melchizedek could not be a coincidence

This had to be the future in view

 

And how can we forget Isaiah

In Isaiah 9 and verse 6

Among the several titles for Jesus

The mighty God is in the mix

 

Jesus is not another God

For there is only one the Bible tells

He and the Father are one he says

Remembering that would do us well

 

One final Old Testament passage

Found in Zechariah 12 and verse 10

They shall look upon me whom they have pierced

This certainly had not happened then

 

No man has seen God at anytime

Jesus makes this very clear

Jesus himself he has declared Him

So that today we need not fear

 

These examples that I have given

Of Jesus in the Old Testament

Shows that he is its central theme

This was my sincere intent

 

Throughout all of the Bible

Jesus is its theme

The manifestation of God the Father

In both Testaments this is seen

 

Stewart Russell © October 2017

 

 

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