Jesus in the Old Testament

You've probably heard that the whole Bible is about Jesus, but maybe you've struggled to see how, especially in some of those difficult-to-understand Old Testament passages. You are not alone.

Recently, I was reading through Genesis and the Holy Spirit reminded me that Jesus is the word of God.

"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God." John 1:1

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." - John 1:14

If Jesus is the very word of God, then to read the Bible is like looking straight into His face. To study it out is to get to know Him. To learn His expressions and memorize every laugh line. To become familiar with that twinkle in His eye and the curves of His cheeks.

It's really kind of wild when you think of it that way!

So with that in mind, I asked Jesus to show me His face in the words of these Genesis stories. In His faithful way, He did! Here is what I read:

"After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: 'Fear not Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.'" - Genesis 15:1

Do you see Him? I'll tell you the two places I found Him in this verse. First, "the word of the Lord," like we already talked about. Second, "I am your shield." This one goes off on a totally different tangent, but is a really fascinating one to study out. If you're intrigued, go check out the "Armor of God" series we did a couple of years ago and you'll see what I mean.

On that first one, though. Yes, it could be that Abram simply heard the voice of God speaking to him. Except scripture says it came in a vision, so we know he saw something. What if that something was a someone? And that someone was Jesus in His pre-incarnate form?

I thought I may be crazy when I first read this and began working through it, but then I kept going and saw Him again in Hagar's story. This is in Genesis chapter 16 when Hagar gets a visit from the Angel of the Lord.

As I read through the study notes in my Bible, I learned that some believe this to be the pre-incarnate Jesus, because the words He speaks are attributed to being God's words. So this affirmed my theory about Abram as well.

Then we can look at the things that the Angel of the Lord says to Hagar and the way they line up so beautifully with the character of God and Jesus' teachings.

1. He instructs her to submit to Sarai, her master, despite the way she was mistreated
2. He gives her a promise of hope
3. He tells her what to name her son, and prophesies about his life

These are just two examples of what I am convinced is many more of Jesus showing up in the Old Testament, not just in a metaphorical way, but in a tangible way. To think that people in the Old Testament got to actually hear from and interact with Jesus, before even really understanding who He is - it's wild!

So, this is my encouragement to you if you're struggling to see Jesus in some of these Old Testament stories. He's there, you only need to ask Him to show you, and I think you'll be surprised at where you find Him.