Where is Jesus in the Old Testament?

Many dismiss the old testament as irrelevant, thinking the new covenant replaces the old.  Jesus said:

Matthew 5:17 Don’t think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets.  I’ve not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

People disregard the old testament, even though Paul wrote of it:

2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is beneficial for understanding our beliefs, for pointing our errors, for correcting people and for teaching godliness.

Many think Jesus began as a baby 2,000 years ago. But Jesus said:

John 8:56 “Your father Abraham looked forward to seeing my coming.  And he saw it and was glad.”  ⁵⁷Then the Jews said to him, “You aren’t even fifty years old, and you claim to have seen Abraham?”  ⁵⁸Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, Before Abraham, I Am.”

They were so upset at Jesus’ claim to be God, that they picked up stones to kill him, but Jesus just walked through them and left.

Jesus seems to be referring to his encounter with Abraham in Genesis 18, when three men were walking through his land, turned out to be angels, but one was the Lord.

The Angel of the Lord

As our eyes are opened, we see many other cases, where “the angel of the Lord” appears, describing God in human form.  When men encounter angels, they tend to fall down in awe and worship them, but the angels tell them not to because they are servants just like you.  But in other cases an “Angel” appears, who accepts worship, such as when “the commander of the Lord’s army” appears to Joshua before the battle of Jericho in Joshua 5:14.

The Word of the Lord

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  ²The same was in the beginning with God.  ³All things were made by him.  And without him, no created thing was made.

¹⁴And the Word became human and lived as one of us (and we saw his glory, the glory of the one and only son of the Father) full of grace and truth.

If we then read the Word of the Lord as being Jesus, we find hundreds of references, particularly when the “Word of the Lord came to me” in the writings of prophets.

Images of Christ

Isaiah 53 has the most graphic description of Jesus crucifixion, which is also described in dozens of other passages, some overtly, and others as subtle pattern played out through the lives of old testament characters.

Matthew 12:40 Just as Jonah was in the whale’s belly for three days and three nights, likewise, the Son of man will be in the heart of the Earth for three days and three nights.

We see numerous other echoes of Jesus such as the Passover lamb, Isaac being sacrificed by Abraham, the lamb that was slain to provide clothes for Adam and Eve.

Mark 15:34 And around 3pm, Jesus cried out in a loud voice saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which meand “My God, my God, why have you turned away from me?”

As Jesus was dying he remembers Psalm 22, which David wrote in a time of great distress.

So where is Jesus in the Old Testament?

That is totally the wrong question.

Where is Jesus not in the Old Testament?

Today, Jesus continues to appear to people all around the world, particularly to Muslims in dreams.  Jesus is the physical embodiment of God.  We call Jesus the Word of the Lord, but this is also another name for the Bible.  I think these are not easily separable – the Bible is also the physical embodiment of God’s will, which we can interact with physically.