Jesus In The Old Testament: Jesus In Prophesy Series

Jesus in the OT: Jesus in Prophecy - Sermon for CATM - November 25, 2018

So we’ve been looking in some depth at Jesus in the Old Testament - Jesus in Creation, Jesus in the Law and Jesus Incognito (His cloaked appearances or theophanies) and today we are looking at Jesus in Old Testament prophecy. This is to help us get a grounding in what Advent, the incarnation of God in the Christ Child, is all about. Advent starts next Sunday!

And today we look at Jesus in prophecy, Jesus as He appears in the Old Testament as His coming to earth is anticipated and predicted.

What is prophecy? The foretelling or prediction of what is to come, inspired by God. The Bible defines a prophet as an ordinary person who reveals information from God that is otherwise unknown.

We’re going to look at just a few key passages in the old Testament and explore what they say about Jesus.

Jesus Will Destroy the Work of the Enemy of Our Souls

Read Genesis 3:1-15 (vv. 14-15)

I read the whole section so that we can place the key verse in its context.

Vv. 14-15

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

What in the world does this have to do with Jesus, you may ask, as I did when I first heard of a connection, when I first heard that this was the earliest prophecy of Christ.

This passage is the record of Satan’s first deception. He confuses, misleads and ultimately greatly harms the first man and the first woman.

And this deception, and how extremely easily Adam and Eve were deceived and then rebelled against God’s command, is what has led to the chaos in the world since, and the chaos in the human heart since.

It’s a powerful narrative, a true story of what happened to the human race after God’s original blessing of creation.

But here, even here in this saddest of passages that foreshadows such human suffering that would follow for millennia, we see the first hint of redemption. We see the first prophecy of Jesus.

Where is it?

15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

God speaks of the woman, Eve. The mother of all human life. The matriarch of humankind, and of womankind in particular.

And to her, who here represents all womankind, God says that the ‘offspring’ of the woman will be in a battle with Satan himself.

The result is that the ‘offspring’ who is male in this case, will be struck by Satan in the heel.

That’s a wound. That’s a real wound. Feels horrible to have any part of your body attacked, struck.

But here in this passage, though the offspring of the woman is struck in the heel, a wound from which He can emerge and recover from, Satan will have...what will happen to Satan?

The offspring of the woman will crush his head. Satan will be ultimately destroyed, defeated. Done for. And this...this is what happened at the cross of Jesus.

The offspring of the woman would eventually crush the serpent’s head, a promise fulfilled in Christ’s victory over Satan—a victory in which all believers will share:

Romans 16:20 says: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you”.

This is an early hint of God’s plan of salvation through the cross.

So this is the first prophecy of Jesus. The first hint of what is to come.

A second Old Testament prophecy about Jesus

Jesus Will Be The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father

Isaiah 9:6-7 says this: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this”.

This is a remarkable passage from the prophetic book of Isaiah. What it says very plainly is that a child, a son will be born who will have great authority and power.

The Son will have many titles, and in those titles reflect the very nature of God the Trinity.