You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. John 5:39

The Old Testament is full of examples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Below are the examples that are explicitly mentioned in the New Testament. This should encourage us to seek Him in the Scriptures so that our hearts will be set on fire (Luke 24:25-27).

Adam is the head of the old creation, Christ the head of the new (Gen 1:26, 28; Rom 5:12 ff.; 1 Cor 15:20-22). In this respect, Adam is a “model of what is to come” (Rom 5:14). And Adam’s relationship with Eve points to Christ and the assembly (Eph 5:31, 32).

Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God (Gen 14:18-24). He is a model of Christ, who will reign as king in the kingdom of peace and distribute God’s blessing as a priest (Heb 7:1-10). Today Christ is already a priest in heaven according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4; Heb 5:6).

Isaac, the only and beloved son of Abraham, who was to be sacrificed on one of the mountains of Moriah, is a picture of Jesus, whom God gave up on the cross and raised from the dead (Gen 22; Heb 11:17).

Moses, initially rejected by the Israelites, became the savior of the people from Egypt (Acts 7:35) as well as the mediator of the Old Covenant. Christ, the rejected one, is the author of our salvation and the mediator of a New Covenant (Heb 2:10; 8:6). And Moses testified that a prophet like Him would arise, pointing to the Lord (Acts 3:22; 7:37; cf. John 7:40).

Aaron was the first high priest of Israel; God had called him to this position. Christ was also called by God as high priest – albeit according to a higher priestly order than the order of Aaron (Heb 5:1-5).

The Passover lamb, whose blood saved the Israelites from the destroyer in Egypt, is a picture of Christ, who died for us to avert God’s judgment from us (Exodus 12; 1 Corinthians 5:7).

The manna in the desert was the bread from heaven on which the Israelites were nourished (Ex 16:15). Christ is the living bread that came down from heaven and is the true food (Jn 6:32, 33, 35, 41, 50, 51, 58).

The rock that accompanied the people of Israel during their wilderness journey and from which they drank “was the Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4).

The curtain in the tabernacle, which separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, is a picture of the flesh of the Lord Jesus (Heb 10:20). When Christ died – when the curtain was torn – the way into the sanctuary, into the presence of God, was cleared (Mt 27:51).

Blood was sprinkled on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant once a year, on the Great Day of Atonement, to bring about atonement (Lev 16:14-16). The lid is therefore also called the atonement lid (Ex 25:17, note). God presented Christ as a means of atonement (or atonement cover, Heb 9:5) through faith in his blood (Rom 3:25).

The various sacrifices, which are particularly addressed in the third book of Moses, found their fulfillment in the Lord Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross (Eph 5:2; Heb 10:10, 14).

The Israelites, bitten by fiery serpents, had to look to a copper serpent set up by Moses in order to be saved from death (Num 21:6-9). Those who believe today in the one who was lifted up on the cross receive eternal life and will not perish (John 3:14, 15).

David, the man after God’s own heart, was persecuted before he became king. He is a foreshadowing of the rejected but ultimately triumphant Jesus Christ, who is the Son of David (Mt 12:3-4; Acts 13:22; Mt 1:1). The promised Messiah is sometimes even referred to directly as “David” in the prophets (Jer 30:9; Ezek 37:25; Hos 3:5).

The temple in the Old Testament was the dwelling place of God (1 Kings 8:10 ff.). In this it refers to the body of the Lord Jesus, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells (John 2:19-21; Colossians 1:19; 2:9).

Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and then preached to the nations. Christ rose from the dead after being in the heart of the earth for three days and now also proclaims peace to the nations through the Spirit (Lk 11:29, 30; cf. Eph 2:17).