Jan. 5, 2011 - On The Road To Emmaus - Old Testament Jesus
In November 2009 we completed a 10 year study of the New Testament. We decided at that time we would do a review of the Old Testament Scriptures that had messianic references or pointed to Jesus Christ and the New Testament. Isaiah was one of the first books to come to mind so we decided to start out with Isaiah. Now, after spending one year in the book of Isaiah we have decided to take a little detour from the model that we have used for our Bible study for the last 10 years.
Over the next few weeks we will be doing a study or overview of different books of Old Testament Scripture references that pertain to Jesus in the Old Testament. The foreshadowing and the foretelling, the prophesy of the coming Messiah and Savior Christ Jesus.
I have titled this study; "On the road to Emmaus." It comes from chapter 24 of Luke's gospel, beginning is verse 13.
Luke 24:13-27 NIV
On the Road to Emmaus
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem.
14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.
15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;
16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast.
18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.
20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him;
21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning
23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.
24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
26 Did not the Messiah (or Christ) have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained ( He expounded, which means He stuck close to the text) to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.Mark 16:12-13 (New International Version, ©2010)
12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. 13 These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.
Emmaus - "Emmaus was situated, according to the testimony both of Luke and Josephus, sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, that is, about seven miles and a half. D'Arvieux states, that going from Jerusalem to Rama, he took the right from the high road to Rama, at some little distance from Jerusalem, and ""travelled a good league over rocks and flint stones, to the end of the valley of terebinthine trees,"" until he reached Emmaus; which ""seems, by the ruins which surround it, to have been formerly larger that it was in our Saviour's time. The Christians, while masters of the Holy Land, re-established it a little, and built several churches. Emmaus was not worth the trouble of having come out of the way to see it."""
Seven and a half miles. A typical constant walking pace, while conversing with one another, "over rocks and flint stones" one could expect to average 3 to 3 1/2 miles an hour. That means Jesus 'expounded with these disciples for 2 to 3 hours about "what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." What did HE say? What was important to Jesus and what was it that, as they said to each other, made their "hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32)
One commentator says:
i. He told them that the Messiah was:
○ The Seed of the Woman, whose heel was bruised.
○ The blessing of Abraham to all nations.
○ The High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.
○ The Man who wrestled with Jacob.
○ The Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
○ The voice from the burning bush.
○ The Passover Lamb.
○ The Prophet greater than Moses.
○ The captain of the Lord’s army to Joshua.
○ The ultimate Kinsman-Redeemer mentioned in Ruth.
○ The son of David who was a King greater than David.
○ The suffering Savior of Psalm 22.
○ The Good Shepherd of Psalm 23.
○ The wisdom of Proverbs and the Lover of the Song of Solomon.
○ The Savior described in the prophets and the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53.
○ The Princely Messiah of Daniel who would establish a kingdom that would never end.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR; OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE PASSAGES THAT SHOW
CHRIST INCARNATE - Definition of INCARNATE. 1. a: invested with bodily and especially human nature and form b: made manifest or comprehensible : embodied
A PICTURE OR MODEL OF CHRIST - noun. 1. a standard or example for imitation or comparison. 2. a representation, generally in miniature, to show the construction or appearance of something.
A MESSIANIC PROPHECY - A prophecy is the message that has been communicated to a prophet which the prophet then communicates to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration ...
Genesis 3:15 (NIV) PROPHECY
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers; he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Genesis 3:15 - Satan is our enemy. He will do anything he can to get us to follow his evil, deadly path. The phrase "you will strike his heel" refers to Satan's repeated attempts to defeat Christ during his life on earth. "He will crush your head" foreshadows Satan's defeat when Christ rose from the dead. A strike on the heel is not deadly, but a crushing blow to the head is. Already God was revealing his plan to defeat Satan and offer salvation to the world through his Son, Jesus Christ.
(NIV Life Application Bible)Genesis 22:13 (NIV) MODELOffered as our substitute
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
Genesis 22:13 - This is a parallel between the ram offered on the alter as a substitute for Isaac and Christ offered on the cross as a substitute for us. Whereas God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, God did not spare his own Son, Jesus, from dying on the cross. If Jesus had lived, the rest of humankind would have died. God sent his only Son to die for us so that we can be spared from the eternal death we deserve and instead receive eternal life. (Jn 3:16)
(NIV Life Application Bible)
Genesis 49:10 (NIV)
PROPHECY10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,[a]until he to whom it belongs[b] shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
Genesis 49:10 - Why was Judah--known for selling Joseph into slavery and trying to defraud his daughter-in-law--so greatly blessed? God had chosen Judah to be the ancestor of Israel's line of kings (that is the meaning of "the scepter will not depart from Judah"). This may have been due to Judah's dramatic change of character (44:33, 34). Judah's line would produce the promised Messiah, Jesus.
(NIV Life Application Bible)TABLE TALK DISCUSSION
1. Beginning with Genesis. Go around the table and share your genesis; where you were born and lived until end of high school. Your spiritual upbringing during that time. Did you come to Christ in that time? Any important events in your life in those years?
