Did Moses write about Jesus in the Old Testament?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. We’ve started our summer series, This is my story, where we are hearing from various of our ministry leaders, how God has worked in their lives, and how their stories connect to the ways that God worked in the lives of people that we find in scripture.

This last week, we talked about Moses and his calling and his humility in his calling, and actually how he was comfortable and confident revealing his weaknesses. Um, and we said we can have that same um, confidence and comfort talking about our weaknesses, our shortcomings, if we are finding our worth somewhere other than our performance or our success.

If we receive our worth through grace, then we don’t need to earn our sense of self-worth through uh, our achievements and performance. So we asked the question, now did Moses know about that? Did he know about Jesus? Did he know about um, a worth that could be received? Did he know about grace? Did he know about the one who was to come, um, who would who would pave a way for him um, outside of his works, you know, despite his works, that that Jesus would redeem, um, and give him, you know, Jesus’

own status and um, and acceptance and approval. Did he know all of that was yet to happen? Did he trust in it? Um, and we said to some extent, yes, it must have because Jesus, John 5:46 tells the religious leaders, if you had believed Moses, you would believe me because Moses wrote about me. So these five books that we, you know, tradition says Moses wrote at the at the beginning of our Bibles, um, somehow point to Jesus.

Now the question is, how do they do that? Um, we didn’t have time to cover that in uh, the sermon, so glad to circle back today. And of course we can’t cover everything. That’s a massive, those are massive volumes um, of history and law, poetry mixed in, creation narrative, all kind of things. Uh, so we can’t say how all of it points to Jesus, but just some examples. Um, you know, Genesis 3:15, some people call it the proto-evangelion, the the pre-gospel, um, where Adam and Eve are um, exiled from

the garden. And God tells the serpent, God curses the serpent, um, and he says, I’m going to put enmity between you and the woman, between uh, her offspring and you. And it is her offspring, you know, notably, not the offspring of a man, offspring of a woman, uh, which would be totally countercultural at that moment.

Offspring of a woman who will come and, you know, crush your head, serpent. Um, and so it’s it’s foreshadowing Jesus. There is one who is to come who will crush evil. Adam and Eve had this problem in the garden, right? They encountered evil. They failed the test against the serpent. Um, and this evil is now divided God and humanity because humans followed it.

How are we going to overcome that? How are we going to get back together with God? Is it going to be our performance or is it going to be one who comes to crush evil and reunite us with God? It is one who comes. It is not us. It is not our works. It’s this one who was promised, right? So that’s one way.

Who’s going to crush evil, reunite us with God? Not us. It’s grace. It comes from outside of us. Move forward, uh, you know, to the law, Leviticus, right? All these codes and regulations, um, that we must do, right? Uh, but couched in there is several different ways it says it, but uh, Leviticus 20 verses 7 and 8 is one example.

God says, be holy, right? For I am holy, you know, consecrate yourself. Be holy. This must be done. Law is super important. But then he says, verse 8, for it is I, the Lord, who make you holy. It is me that does this. It is not you. How are how is the law going to be fulfilled? Not you. Is it important?

Is it required? Yes. God’s not going to fudge on his standards whatsoever at all. But how how are these laws actually going to be accomplished? I am the Lord who makes you holy. That’s how it’s going to be done, right? Where’s our righteousness come from? Our performance? No, actually we fail on our performance. But yet, God is the one who is going to fulfill it for us.

So it’s grace once again. It is required, we failed, but God steps in to fulfill it. You could fast forward to Deuteronomy 9, uh, starting in verse 6, maybe there. Moses is telling them how they’re going to enter the land. And Moses just clarifies, look, you’re not entering the land because of your goodness.

In fact, then he goes through all these terrible things Israel has done, right? So you’re not entering the land because you’re good. But you’re entering the land, right? Did you need to be good to enter the land? Yes. He later other places in Deuteronomy is like, I lay you out a blessing and a curse.

If you do everything right, you’re going to get blessed. If you do everything wrong, you’re going to get cursed. But then here we are. They’ve done everything wrong and yet they get to go into the land. Why? Deuteronomy 9 would say it’s because of God’s covenant with them. It’s because of his love for them, um, and also because of the evilness of the people that they’re taking out.

But it’s not their works. So how are they going to get the land? It’s not them. It’s not their performance. It’s not that they’ve measured up. It’s just by grace. So grace is all over the place in the Old Testament, even in the middle of the law, even in the middle of blessings and curses for obedience and disobedience.

It’s still like, look, you you were disobedient, but you’re actually being blessed because you’re going into the land. Then Jesus comes, right, as the embodiment of all of these different pictures of grace. Who crushes the serpent’s head? Jesus. Who measures up to the law in our place? Like from Leviticus?

Jesus. Who brings us into the promised land? It’s Jesus, right? He was the one that was exiled. He is the one that takes the curses so we can have the blessings, right? It’s all all of these all of these little stories that add up together, right? What are they talking about? They’re talking about what Jesus will do in our place, right?

We failed the test in the garden. He passed the test in his garden. We failed the law. He passed the law. We failed to, you know, meet the requirements to enter the promised land. He passed that test in our place. He he gives us the credit for the life that he lived and he takes the blame for the life that we lived, right?

It’s all about Jesus. It’s just a small foretaste, right? Or a small sampling of of how the Old Testament and the books of Moses are about Jesus. But yes, it’s really about him. The whole thing is really about him, pointing to him, foreshadowing him, telling us our need for him and the ultimate fulfillment that’s yet to come.

Did Moses know about a worth that is unearned, that is just received by grace? Yes, he absolutely knew about that. And he looked forward to the day uh, when God would bring total fulfillment to it. So, we pray that’s helpful. We’ll see you next time.