“Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” – Luke 24:44-45
Lately, I have been captivated with this idea: What was Jesus’ opinion of the Old Testament? The Apostle Luke reveals part of the answer in Luke 24:44-45. At this point, Jesus has been resurrected and He is talking to His disciples. Paraphrased He is saying to them that the ENTIRE Old Testament was fulfilled in Him while He was alive. He crossed every “T” and dotted every “I”. The “Scriptures” He is talking about was the Old Testament for the New Testament had not been written yet.
Think about it, Jesus had the Old Testament; He read it, studied it, quoted it, believed it and fulfilled it. He literally was a living model of the Old Testament, typified in every major prophet, embodying every covenant and fulfilling every prophecy.
Matthew, a disciple of Jesus, reveals this idea in the first chapter of his Gospel, which is often called the genealogy of Christ. Matthew 1:1-17 has two literary bookends:
“The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” – Matthew 1:1
“So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.” – Matthew 1:17
Notice the reverse order which encapsulates three sets of double sevens:
Generations Lineage
14 Abraham –> David
14 David –> Exile
14 Exile –> Jesus
The generations span three (the Hebrew number for completion) sets of double sevens (the Hebrew number for perfection)!
Also notice how many times Matthew uses the form of the word “fulfill” (Matthew 1:22; 2:15; 2:17; 2:23). What was it that Jesus “fulfilled”? Obviously, it was the Old Testament. Matthew sees the Old Testament as the very embodiment of promise fulfilled by Christ.
How do you view the Old Testament? Jesus thought it was pretty important to teach His disciples. Are you reading it and letting Him teach you?
In Christ,
Dave
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