I’ve always felt that the Old Testament is meant to reveal to us how the New Covenant (Grace) is to be understood, its teaching of our spiritual selves and our relationship with our Lord Christ Jesus.  Several figures from the Old Covenant (Testament) are direct analogies to Jesus and the purpose for His being.

First is Adam, the first man.  Adam was given the Edenic Covenant to propagate the race, subdue the earth, exercise dominion over the animals, care for the Garden of Eden and refrain from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Jesus has been referred to as the last Adam for quite some time. 

Romans 5:12-14

12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned 13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22

21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:45-49

45 So also it is written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

At this point, I have already run this part of our topic into the ground.  I supplied some of the supporting Scripture and suggest you educate yourselves further in the Bible.

Second is Noah.  Noah was given the Noahdic Covenant.  This is best explained with Scripture as follows:

Genesis 8:20-9:17

20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

22 "While the earth remains,

Seedtime and harvest,

And cold and heat,

And summer and winter,

And day and night

Shall not cease."

Covenant of the Rainbow

Genesis 9

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 "The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. 3 "Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. 4 "Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.  5 "Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man's brother I will require the life of man.

6 Whoever sheds man's blood,

By man his blood shall be shed,

For in the image of God

He made man.

7 "As for you, be fruitful and multiply;

Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it."

8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9 "Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 11 "I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth." 12 God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; 13 I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 14 "It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, 15 and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." 17 And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."

Noah’s task as a servant of the Most High God was to save the earthy (of the flesh) mankind from death.  Jesus’ role (as God on earth) was to save the spiritual mankind from spiritual death.  Both served to save us from a form of death.  Now as Jesus put it so bluntly, we should not fear death of the body, but death of the soul.

Matthew 10:28

28 "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Enough said on this point, so I will move on to my next example.

Third is Abraham.  Abraham was a special person of faith.  He was 99 years old when God appeared to him and called him to service.  Abraham was given the third covenant, the covenant of circumcision.  What was this covenant?  God wants us to be obedient to Him.  If you have had a calling from His, you know what I’m talking about.  If He tells you to stay in this town and finish His work, when you leave the town, you will find yourself in the center of town again.

How does this tie to Jesus?  The examples are numerous, but to me, the major point was God’s demand to him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac.  God sacrificed His only Son (Jesus) to save us all from eternal damnation.  Isaac’s blood was impure as he carried the original sin stemming from Adam, but Abraham, being God’s obedient servant, carried Isaac to a stone on Mt. Moriah and prepared his son for sacrifice.  Even Isaac understood and was willing.

Genesis 22:1-14

1 Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you." 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. 5 Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you." 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" 8 Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together. 9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord  called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 12 He said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." 13 Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. 14 Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the Lord  it will be provided."

Verse 8 sums it up quite nicely.  It says, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb”.  God’s Son Jesus was the unblemished Lamb who was sacrificed to save all who believed in Him, eternal salvation.

John 3:16

16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

God furnished the Unblemished Lamb so we can be spared death of the spirit.

Forth and certainly not the least is Moses.  Moses was given the Mosaic Covenant. This was a Conditional Covenant, connected with the giving of the Law at Sinai and the Levitical priesthood. The Law condemns all men.  All men and I mean every human on earth, are consumed in sin.  If nothing else, we are all born with the original sin, but we all sin, every day we sin (unless you’re in a coma).  Those who believe they do not sin are fools.

1 John 1:8-10

8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

If you are bound and determined to find a sinner, I recommend you get up first thing in the morning, walk into your bathroom and look directly into the mirror.  Ah ha!!!!  There is the sinner you should spend your life fixing.  He is standing there looking back at you with this huge log (maybe half a meter in diameter and 3 meters long) hanging from his eye.  God gives you this tiny file to whittle on it and more than a lifetime is required to clear it.

Matthew 7:1-5

1 "Do not judge so that you will not be judged.  2 "For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.  3 "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  4 "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye?  5 "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

This basically says, WORK ON YOURSELF.

Then there is Scripture that shows a direct relationship of Moses to Jesus.

Acts 7:35-37

35 "This Moses whom they disowned, saying, 'WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND A JUDGE?' is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush. 36 "This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.  37 "This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, 'GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN.'

This Scripture clearly states that Jesus was a Prophet (“a prophet like me”).  Acts 7:35 – 37 is quoted from Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 18:15-18

15 "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. 16 "This is according to all that you asked of the LORD your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.' 17 "The LORD said to me, 'They have spoken well. 18 'I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

I feel this speaks for itself.  The main thing to remember is Moses delivered God’s children from sure physical death at the hands of the Pharaoh.  Jesus is delivering God’s children from spiritual death at the hands of Satan.

I hope this dissertation has helped you to understand a little about Old Testament relationships to the New Testament.  I feel that the Old Testament teaches us the purposes with the New Covenant.  Physical death in the Old Testament relates to Spiritual death in the New Testament.

This article is in no way complete.  It will be an ongoing work and as I receive God’s inspiration, I will continue to post the work until I feel it is complete.  If you have any comments or corrections, I will be extremely grateful.  I’m just a man and we, as humans, are subject to mistakes.  I love good conversation on the Holy Scripture and will cherish input.

To Be Continued

Pastor David Halford