Christ in the Old Testament
Throughout the Old Testament there are very many foreshadowing and prophecies of Jesus Christ. The prophets paint a picture of what the coming Messiah might look like. The Psalms foreshadow His life and personality. These aren’t the only things that tell us about Christ however. There were people described in the Old Testament that were “types” of Christ. To say that someone is a type of someone else means that their lives had parallels and similarities. Some examples of types of Christ found in the Old Testament are: Adam, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, Jonah, Job.
The first type of Christ found in the Bible is Adam. We can see a parallel between Adam and Jesus in the gardens. In the garden of Eden, Adam disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit. Adam did not trust that God was in control and knew what was best for him, instead Adam thought that God was trying to keep him from being as powerful as Himself. Adam said “no” to God’s will by eating the fruit. At the start of Jesus's passion, as recounted in the gospel of John, we find Jesus in a garden called Gethsemane. Jesus is on His knees, sweating blood, and weeping. Jesus begs the Father to take away this suffering that He is about to endure. God does not take away the suffering, but allows Jesus to endure it. Jesus could have turned away, He was the most innocent man in the world, about to be killed gruesomely for crimes He did not commit. Yet, Jesus endured His sufferings, and gave His “yes” to the Father. In this way Adam was a type of Christ.
The next type of Christ is Issac. Issac’s father , Abraham, is called the “father of the nations.” Issac was Abraham’s only son by his lawful wife Sarah. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son to God. Abraham was obedient, even though it meant the death of his beloved son. In a similar way, God the Father sent His only Son, Jesus for our redemption. God offered His one and only begotten, beloved, innocent, and perfect Son to be sacrificed and die a terrible death so that we might be called His children, and experience eternal life. In this way Issac is a type of Christ.
The next type of Christ found in the Old Testament is Joseph. Joseph was hated by his brothers and envied because he was favored by his father. His brothers delivered him to be sold as a slave. He served his master and obeyed God even throughout His sufferings. This shows that Joseph was a type of Christ because Jesus was also hated by many of the people He would have grown up with. He was not accepted in His own hometown. He is also similar to Joseph in the sense that just as his own brothers delivered him to be a slave, Jesus’s own apostle and friend, Judas, delivered Jesus to the Pharisees to suffer. Jesus and Joseph were both obedient to God even though they were delivered to their enemies by people who they were close with.
Another type of Christ is Moses. Moses and Christ had very many similarities in their lives. They were both born during a massacre of infant boys, and sent by God to deliver His people. Moses was sent to deliver the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage. However, Christ was sent to deliver the world from the bondage of sin. Each person offered a sort of promised land.
Two more types of Christ are David and Solomon. Christ and David are similar in a few senses. They were both kings, in fact, Jesus is descended from the line of David. David was hunted and hated by King Saul. In a similar way Jesus was hunted and hated by King Herod, and the Pharisees, Sadducees, and High Priests. Jesus was also similar to Solomon in the sense that both were kings. Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. Bringing God to the Jewish people. In the same way Christ built His Church, bring God not only to the Jewish people but to everyone.
The last two types of Christ are almost antitypes of each other. Job mirrors Christ in the sense that he was innocent and still suffered a great deal. Jesus was perfect in every way possible and still suffered one of the worst deaths and sufferings in history. He took on the weight of the sins of the world. Jonah does not mirror Christ in this way. He suffers because he disobeyed and tried to flee from God. However Jonah is a type of Christ in the sense that he was in the belly of a whale for three days and three nights. In the same way Christ descended into the depths of the Earth for three days and nights. Jesus and Jonah also both preach messages of repentance.
In conclusion, Christ is foreshadowed through the events and lives of many people throughout the Old Testament. In Adam, we see the perfect man losing God’s grace and gaining suffering, while Jesus suffers to give all of us God’s grace. In Isaac we see an offering of the Father of the nation's only son, in Jesus we see God the Father’s offering of His only son. In Joseph and Jesus we see a man hated and delivered to his enemies by those who were close to him. In Moses and Jesus we see two deliverers and their promised lands. In David, Solomon, and Jesus, we see a King, hated by others, bringing God to his people, and establishing their Church.Finally, in Jonah, Job, and Jesus we see servants of the Lord. Each parallel highlights what the coming Messiah would look like.
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See you in the Eucharist,
May
Work Cited
Laux, John, and Ma Fr John Laux. Introduction to the Bible: The Nature, History, Authorship and Content of the Holy Bible with Selections from and Commentaries on the Various Books. Tan Books, 1932.
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