Jesus and the Promised Land February 8, 2016
If we lost the Old Testament, would we lose anything in our understanding of Jesus Christ and the gospel? If the Romans Road is all we really need to know, why bother with all that other stuff like manna, the tabernacle, the Promised Land, genealogies, laws, kings, and prophets?
Apparently, Jesus Himself thought the OT was pretty helpful for knowing Him: “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27)
Notice that He found Himself in all the Scriptures, not just a few obvious prophecies here and there. And notice, too, that He had to “interpret” the Bible this way for them. He had to teach them to do it like this, because it wasn’t their natural way of reading the Old Testament.
He might have turned to Genesis and explained that He was the seed of the woman who crushed the serpent’s head, the true and better ark which saves us from the deluge of wrath, the offspring of Abraham who brings blessing to all families of the earth, and the true Joseph who suffers faithfully yet rises to prominence and delivers his people. He might have chosen Exodus where He is the Passover Lamb, the true manna, and the true tabernacle. He could have pointed out that He is the holy one Leviticus requires, the greater prophet than Moses from Deuteronomy, the ultimate deliverer of Judges, or the kinsman redeemer of Ruth. In the books of poetry, He is the solo voice singing through the Psalms, the true wisdom of Proverbs, and the tender lover of Song of Songs. In the Prophets, He is Isaiah’s suffering servant and virgin-born son and Wonderful Counselor, Jeremiah’s new covenant, Ezekiel’s grand temple, Daniel’s great heavenly stone and Son of Man, Hosea’s faithful husband, Joel’s promised refuge in the Day of the Lord, Amos’s divine visitation, Jonah’s 3-day entombment in the whale, and Micah’s Bethlehem-born ruler.
We’re not sure what passages Jesus picked, but we do know this: wherever He turned, He was the hero, the main character, and the interpretive prism in whom all the reds, blues, purples, greens, and yellows of the story converge.
In today’s sermon from Joshua chapters 13-19, the twelve tribes of Israel receive their portion of the Promised Land. So what does that have to do with Jesus? I’m so glad you asked! Stay tuned…