I love Star Wars. I remember using our couch as a trampoline when my dad brought home the original Star Wars in VHS form, and being glued to our TV until the credits rolled. But as much as I loved the original Star Wars movies, I didn't like the prequels as much. Not bad, but not great. Every time I watched a prequel, I just wanted to go back and watch the originals again.
It's kinda the same with the Old Testament and New Testament for me. I love the NT. Like LOVE it. I learned greek so I could read the original manuscripts. I love Jesus, I love the stories, I love the Epistles...it just feels like home to me. The OT, not so much. I'm inspired by the heroes, I'm uplifted by the Psalms, and I'm grateful for the Proverbs. But it's always seemed like foreign territory for me.
Jesus schooling some of his followers on why they should know the Old Testament better on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24.
But then, as our church finished our Two and a half year study of the book of Luke, something hit me. Jesus himself, after he had resurrected, said this to some of his followers:
"How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” Luke 24.25-26 NIV
and then Luke explains
"And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." Luke 24.27 NIV
Woah. Jesus gets upset with some of his followers for not knowing or appreciating what was about him in the Old Testament AND he shows how he, The Messiah, has been in the plan from the beginning. It seems as though the OT was really a PREQUEL for Jesus, and the story is only completed when you can appreciate both Prequel and main story.
So that is what I'm going to do this year. I am going to search through the OT looking for Jesus. It may not be direct in each verse. It may be that the heroes from the OT are only heroes because the in some small way they resemble Jesus before he came. It may be that Jesus reverses thinking from the OT or demolishes a bad example from someone in the OT. It could be that I won't appreciate what Jesus has opened for me until I see what the OT people went through. I don't really know. But that is what this blog will be about. We are answering the question:
Where is Jesus in the Old Testament?
So sit back, enjoy the ride with me. Tell me what parallels you see or if you disagree, or whatever. But welcome to the PREQUEL Blog.