This Week's Focus Passage

This Week’s Focus Passage: Luke 24:27 ‘He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things conce

This Week’s Focus Passage: Luke 24:27

‘He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.’

  And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. ‘In all the scriptures,’ at the time in question, there would have been nothing else but the Old Testament scriptures; right? There would have been the thirty-nine books which make up for us the Older Testament, in a time when there was not yet a New Testament. What may be some of these interpretations which Christ spoke of ‘things concerning Himself.?’ Just a few brief examples will suffice to make the point that there were plenty of places in the Older Testament where Christ could be found; and was found. These are largely to be recognized as ‘types and shadows;’ things that foreshadowed the Christ, or typified Him. David, the shepherd of his father’s sheep, who subsequently  became  king of Israel, following King Saul, whose disobedience to Jehovah cost him his kingdom. David was remarkably noted as a ‘man after God’s own heart.’ Even in his being a shepherd, he was made to be a striking type of the Christ to come; the Good Shepherd Himself. 

 

    We might refer to the ‘Gospel of Jesus according to Moses,’ where Moses, the man of God, has pointed to our Savior, in Deuteronomy 18:18, when saying to Moses, 

I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.—Deuteronomy 18:18-19.

Whether a succession of prophets be included in this promise or not, we are sure that it is primarily intended as a promise of Christ, and it is the clearest promise of Him that is in all the law of Moses. It is expressly applied to our Lord Jesus as the Messiah promised (Acts iii 22, vii 37), and the people had an eye to this promise when they said concerning him, this is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world (John vi 14); and it was His Spirit that spoke in all the other prophets, 1 Peter I 11.”—Henry. Another has volunteered a pithy, but helpful remark when he simply stated his understanding that ‘perhaps we’d be helped by a simple framework for how Christ is at the heart of the Scriptures: He is patterned, promised, and present from Genesis onward.’

For example, Christ is patterned for us in many places, and among many things, in the Older Testament, such as the flood and the ark, the Passover and the Red Sea, the wilderness and the promised land, kingdoms and kings, prophets and priests, the temple, its sacrifices, and its rituals, “The Old Testament,” one has offered, “is extraordinarily Jesus-shaped.” This make the point that the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus throughout its pages.

We have referred to the ‘gospel of Jesus according to Moses,’ but is it not so that there are ‘gospel’ accounts throughout its many pages? We actually hear more often, from among those many pages, of the ‘Gospel of Isaiah,’ in the Old Testament. Its pages are so replete with the Messiah as to be unmistakably such. Imagine, if we might, if the pages containing chapter 53, of Isaiah, were removed from your bible? What a horrific loss that would indeed be. This is one of the most Christ-filled passages to be found anywhere between the covers of our copies of God’s Word; Old or New Testaments. 

Who hath believed our message [or, our report], and to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been revealed? For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised; and we esteemed him not. 

    This is such a well-known portion of the Word of God, and its very important referent sufficiently accepted by virtually all persons interested in both love and truth. How anyone can stand back, as it were, and pretend that these words written by the prophet Isaiah, are not prophetic depictions of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is totally beyond me to comprehend, not only the error, but the presumed audacity of holding such a position.

    If there is any necessity for greater demonstrations of Christ being found in the Older Testament, I would turn to an account that our Savior Himself sets before His hearers. Interestingly enough, He brings it forward as a piece of typology which actually supports His claims regarding who He is and what He has come to earth to accomplish. Remarkably, it is found in the Scriptures as Jesus uses it as something of an analogy regarding what was to become of Him, in the designed Providence of God His Father. It is found just prior to the ‘famous’ John 3:16, which many hold to be the ‘gospel in a nutshell.’ I believe that the previous verse is actually the true gospel in a nut shell; when Jesus uttered John 3:14-15; And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life. That is the Gospel!! And the basis for that gospel follows, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. AMEN??

David Farmer, elder

Fellowship Bible Church

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