Article

He Came in Fulfillment of Prophecy

Part 2 of 2

John C. Lawrenz

First presented at a symposium at Dr. Martin Luther College, 1993 · Part 1 · Part 2

We believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. The God of prophecy is the self-defining deity, the I AM WHO I AM. As such, he is “the Lord [Heb. Yahweh], the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished” (Ex 34:6-7). The Old Testament bears this out. Forgiveness, life, and salvation appear in Israel purely by grace, even though failure and apostasy were everywhere. The patriarchal heirs came by their inheritance unexpectedly. Isaac was born to parents past the age of childbearing (He 11:11). Jacob was the younger twin (Ge 25:23). Judah was a fourth son (Ge 29:35) and a wastrel (Ge 38). Judah’s heir was the offspring of an incestuous union (Ge 38:30). In one historical incident after another we see the principle soli deo gloria. God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt followed a plan only God believed in. Israel grumbled, Moses gave up, but God stuck with it (Ex 5). Similarly, Joshua’s first great victory in Canaan, the capture of Jericho, followed a battle plan that defied conventional military wisdom (Jos 6). It required irrational trust. Israel was to shout down the city walls after walking about the city in silence once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh day. Yet it worked. The credit for Israel’s victory over Jericho went 100% to the Lord. Other “victories snatched from the jaws of defeat,” such as Sennacherib’s defeat in the days of King Hezekiah (2 Kgs 19), anticipate the universal acts of grace and judgment which foreshadow the first and second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation by grace alone is the theme of Paul’s letters, especially Romans and Galatians.

Judgment was Israel’s lot when Israel pushed grace aside. Think of the army of Israel at Hormah. The Lord had sentenced his people to forty years of wandering because they refused to fight on the Lord’s side to conquer Canaan. When they changed their minds, they were beaten badly (Nu 14:44,45). Think of the blasphemous use of the sacred ark as a lucky charm by Eli’s sons (1 Sin 4). It led to the destruction of the first sanctuary in Shiloh (Jr 7:12-14). Think how apostate Judah considered Jerusalem and the Temple inviolate in Jeremiah’s day (Jr 4: 10; 8:11) and how Ezekiel in a vision watched the glory of God depart from God’s house (9:3; 10:18; 11:23).

We believe in Jesus Christ… who was conceived by the Holy Ghost; born of the Virgin Mary. Birth appeared as the gateway of salvation in the Garden of Eden. There God promised an end to the tyranny of sin and sin’s author through a woman’s seed. The first Gospel, Genesis 3:15, is remarkable. The Lord couched his message in language that conformed perfectly to Adam and Eve’s world. Had the Lord used terms like Bethlehem, Calvary, Joseph’s tomb, or even Jesus, these words would have been mere sounds to Adam and Eve. Snakebite and stomping on a snake’s head, however, were experiences Adam would confront in a fallen world. Adam and Eve would see the lethal, yet not necessarily fatal, power of venom. At the same time they learned how a crushing blow to the head had the power to stop a serpent dead in its slithering. Thus Genesis 3:15 resembles much of Old Testament prophecy. God used terms and concepts that people could understand in their day, knowing full well that eyes of faith would see the real thing when it finally came.

For generations births were tangible proof of God’s promise. Through Abraham’s descendant all nations on earth would be blessed (Ge 12:3). God told David that a descendant in his family line would supplant David’s desire to build a house of worship for the Lord (2 Sin 7:11-16). Isaiah’s Branch (11:1) from the dead stump of Jesse’s Judah was Isaiah’s wonder child (9:6,7) and the virgin’s son he saw from afar (7:14). Micah said this child would be a baby in Bethlehem (5:2). Because of its importance, birth was a woman’s crowning blessing. Conversely, barrenness was a cross to be borne. With birth came the hope that death’s antidote was near. The golden thread that runs through the whole Old Testament is that God from eternity would conceive a Son in order to save humanity. Eve believed it. Isaiah promised it. Mary experienced it.

Even the Tabernacle, and its successor, the Temple, proclaimed the incarnation. God exists everywhere, as Solomon declared in his dedicatory prayer (1 Kgs .8:27). Yet God told his people there would also be a local place, designated by him, at which he would reveal his name (Dt 12:5). The Tabernacle, a tent, served this purpose from the days of Moses to the death of Eli. The tent had been connected with God’s promise since the Flood. Then Noah had peered prophetically into the future. He saw God’s blessing residing in the tents of Shem, under whose shadow the other branches of humanity would find blessing (Ge 9:27).

The sanctuary from Solomon to Christ was a masonry building, the Jerusalem Temple. Whether a movable tent or a fixed building, the sanctuary had a courtyard for washing and sacrificing attached to it. As part of the full revelation of his grace in the New Testament, Jesus ordained sacraments, one of washing and the other of his body and blood. Jesus compared his body to the sanctuary (Jn 2:19-21), and was accused by the Jews of threatening to destroy the Jerusalem Temple (Mk 14:58). In his first chapter the Apostle John speaks of the Word “tenting” for a while among his people (Jn 1:14). The rending of the Temple veil at Jesus’ death signified an end to the earthly sanctuary as a representation of God’s indwelling (compare Mt 27:51 and He 10:20).

We may even look at the furniture inside the sanctuary as pregnant with meaning. The Holy Place inside the sanctuary had a lampstand and a bread table. Jesus referred to himself as the bread of life (Jn 6:31-35), and light of the world (Jn 8:12; 9:5). The ark of the covenant inside the Most Holy Place contained three items, manna, two tables of stone, and Aaron’s staff (He 9:4). The jar of manna recalls God’s providential care in the wilderness. On the stone tablets were inscribed the Word of God given by God to his prophet Moses. Aaron’s staff was there because God had used it to affirm Aaron’s legitimacy as the one chosen to offer sacrifices for sin. Jesus is the Christ, the “anointed One.” As such, he is the providential King, the prophetic Word, and the One who laid down the satisfactory sacrifice as mankind’s perfect High Priest. It was on the ark’s cover that the blood of atonement was sprinkled. Through the blood of Jesus God and sinners are reconciled (Ro 3:25; 5:10).

We believe in Jesus Christ… who… suffered under Pontius Pilate. Nothing in prophecy rivals what the Holy Spirit revealed to Israel about Christ’s passion. Psalms 41 and 55 speak of the one who betrayed him. Isaiah 53 describes the depth of Christ’s humiliation in death. Psalm 22 gives us the very words Jesus spoke when suffering the agonies of hell on the cross.

To these direct prophecies must be added the rich prophetic imagery of the sacrifices. Each lamb, goat, or bull that shed its blood anticipated the sacrifice of Jesus. A number of acts were prescribed in the Old Testament sacrificial ritual. The offering had to be brought to a place designated by God. It was made a vicarious substitution through the laying on of hands. A sacrifice required death. It emphasized the scattering of blood for atonement. Some portion was consumed by fire. The import of these acts is significant. Jesus and Jesus alone is God’s chosen sacrifice. He is our substitute. Nothing short of his death could suffice as a payment for sins. His blood covers us. Of Jesus Paul says, “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood” (Ro 3:25) and “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5:2).

The bloody sacrifices of the Old Testament did not actually pay for sin. They were offered for unintentional sins, committed by believers in a moment of weakness (Lv 4:1). Sacrifices were brought by believers needing assurance that their sins of weakness would not cut them off from God or the congregation of Israel.

The four bloody sacrifices are discussed in Leviticus, chapters 1 to 7. Sacrificial offerings were usually brought in pairs. The sin offering acknowledged that a particular sin threatened the relationship between a sinner and God. It was usually accompanied by a burnt offering. By being wholly burned, the burnt offering proclaimed the total forgiveness offered by God. The guilt offering was brought when a person acknowledged that he had sinned against his neighbor. It was usually paired with a fellowship offering, part of which was consumed on the altar, and part of which was shared in a meal of reconciliation. Each lamb, goat, or bull that shed its blood anticipated the sacrifice of Jesus. The Great Day of Atonement was fulfilled in Jesus’ sprinkling of his holy, precious blood to satisfy, once for all, the justice of a holy God who wished simultaneously to declare his justifying love. “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (He 10:10).

We believe in Jesus Christ… who… descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he shall come to judge the living and the dead. The exaltation of Jesus, the one who had voluntarily yielded his all to save mankind, is foreshadowed widely in the prophets. Almost to a man they predict a turnabout in the last days, some in simple, straightforward language, others in spectacular visions. A humiliated Israel will be restored. Dry bones will live (Eze 37). Wars will cease (Is 2:4; Mic 3:4). Death will lose its sting (Ho 13:14, quoted in 1 Cor 15:55). Captivity will be led captive (Ps 68:18, quoted in Eph 4:8). The Lord will ascend on high (Ps 68:18; Ac 1:11). God will reign among his people (Zch 9:9-13; Mt 21:5). Those who belong to the Lord will find their rest (Jr 50:34; Mt 11:28).

The preceding survey of prophecy and prophetic themes is only a survey, but it gives some idea of how widely the Lord Jesus Christ is predicted and foreshadowed. Some of the items listed above are prophecies which the New Testament identifies as such. Some are not. It is to those that are not that the next paragraphs are addressed. How far can an interpreter go in seeing Christ in the Old Testament?

God gave Israel a thorough lesson on the subject of rest. Embedded in the Ten Commandments was the divine command to rest on the seventh day (Ex 20:8-11; Dt 5:12-15). The seventh year was a year of rest for the fields, orchards, and vineyards (Lv 25:1-7). It was also a time for setting slaves free and canceling debts (Ex 21:2; Dt 15:1-15). In the year following every seventh Sabbath year, that is, in the fiftieth year, ancestral lands returned to their owners (Lv 25:13). Sabbath means rest. Jesus fulfills the Sabbath, according to the book of Hebrews (4:1-13), by the gift of eternal life.

But what about rest in the seventh month? Is it legitimate to see in the feasts of the seventh month the same rest spoken of in the book of Hebrews?

Our method will be to proceed from what we know to arrive at an answer to our question. We begin with Passover, the great feast of the first month. The New Testament treats the feast of Passover in some detail as a fulfilled prophecy. Paul identified Jesus as the slain Passover lamb (1 Cor 5:7). The Apostle John notes that Jesus’ death occurred at Passover (Jn 13:1). On two successive days John the Baptist recognized Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29,36). In words which echo the description of the Passover lamb given in Exodus 12:5, Peter said, “You were redeemed… with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Pe 1:18,19). Recalling the waving of the firstfruits of the grain harvest before the Lord on the day after the Sabbath following Passover (Lv 23:9-14), Paul calls Jesus “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15:20). Paul anticipates that Christ’s resurrection will empower those who belong to him to rise also (1 Cor 15:23). Moreover, Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples on Maundy Thursday in a manner that can only be understood as fulfillment. The bread and wine of the Passover meal were consecrated by Jesus to serve as tokens of a new covenant. These Passover foods would be the outward signs in, with, and under which believers would receive the body and blood offered for the remission of mankind’s sin. Passover was, moreover, a feast of victory. The Passover sacrifice in Egypt had turned away the angel of death. It signaled liberation from slavery. Jesus’ death as the fulfilled Passover sacrifice anticipated death’s defeat on the third day. Christ’s resurrection made God’s declaration of freedom from sin possible. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Ro 4:25).

Passover was the first of three pilgrimage feasts that required every adult male in Israel to appear before the Lord (Ex 23:14-17). It was so important that Hebrew fathers were commanded by God to instruct their children in its meaning (Ex 12:26,27). Fathers told their children yearly how God had led Moses and Israel out of bondage in Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Jesus, John the Baptist, and Paul learned these lessons well as children. They also learned about the pilgrimage feast, fifty days after Passover, that marked the end of the annual grain harvest (Lv 23:15-22; Nu 28:26-29) and that looked back at the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai.¹² The apostles celebrated its fulfillment seven weeks following Jesus’ death and resurrection. On that momentous Pentecost day the Holy Spirit poured out his power on a reborn people of God, not a people under the Old Testament law, but a new Israel set free by the gospel.

Apostolic Scripture teaches that Passover and Pentecost were fulfilled in the momentous events which brought Christ’s first coming to its triumphant conclusion. But what of the third pilgrimage feast, Tabernacles, which fell in the middle of the seventh month of the Old Testament Jewish year? What about this week-long celebration known in Jesus’ day as “the great feast”?¹³ And, what about the holy day that began the seventh month, the Feast of Trumpets? Neither day is explicitly explained in the context of fulfillment, although the Day of Atonement, which fell between the two in the seventh month, certainly is.

What were these seventh month feasts in their Old Testament setting? Trumpets was the primary new moon feast of the year. It began the seventh month. On it the priests blew their trumpets (Lv 23:23-25; Nu 29:1-6). The Day of Atonement, ten days later, was a day of fasting and self-denial for the people (Lv 16:29; 23:27-32). On this day the Jewish high priest put off his beautiful priestly garments and entered the Most Holy Place with the blood of a sacrifice to atone for his own sins and for those of Israel (Lv 16; 23:26-32). By contrast Tabernacles was a week-long time of celebration that began on the full moon of the seventh month. It marked the ingathering of the summer fruits that had matured in spite of the lack of rain for the previous six months. Tabernacles was a time for moving out of the family home to live in temporary shelters. These makeshift dwellings recalled the temporary shelters Israel used during forty years of desert wanderings that preceded the entrance of Israel into the Promised Land (Lv 23:33-43). Tabernacles was the time for Old Testament kings to read the Law of Moses and dedicate new things (2 Chr 5:3; Neh 8:14-18). The prophet Zechariah closes his vision of the future with people of all nations streaming to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (14:16-21).

Truths are set forth in the New Testament which recall the festivals of the seventh month, even though none of them explicitly make the connection. Our promised inheritance is in heaven (1 Pe 1:3,4). We are told that the good works we do in faith along the way to our “promised land” will follow us. In heaven we will enjoy the fruits of our Christ-motivated labors. Jesus calls them the “fruits that last” (Jn 15:16). This thought is echoed in Revelation. There John tells us that the deeds of the saints follow them into eternity (14:13). But we will receive our promised inheritance only if we deny ourselves and what we have done (Mt 16:24; Mk 8:34; Lk 9:23) and rely solely on the atoning blood of Jesus (1 Jn 2:2; 4:10; also Ro 3:25; He 2:17). The words spoken by the saints on the Last Day will not be self-congratulatory (Mt 25:37-39). The hope of the saints will be the blood shed by Jesus. This blood is brought to the Father in his most holy place by the one who is both priest and sacrifice (He 9:12,24). The writer to the Hebrews indicates that the atonement of Christ was accomplished at his first coming and then shifts the impact of this act of atonement to the final judgment, “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (9:27,28). The justifying judgment will be preceded by the sound of trumpets (1 Cor 15:52; 1 Th 4:16) and will be followed by a time of eternal celebration. When Christ returns to judge the living and the dead, he will usher in a sequence of events that will bring rest to those who in life believed in the power of his death and resurrection. As King of Kings he will read meaning into all of human history. In that day he will reform heaven and earth and all that is in them.

Can it not be said that the holy days of the seventh month of the Old Testament calendar are every bit as prophetic as Passover and Pentecost? Of course it can! The feasts of the seventh month anticipate the perfect rest believers await at Christ’s second coming. They do so in the same way that Passover and Pentecost once fulfilled the events anticipated in prophetic revelation in respect to his first coming. God used the times which bracketed the agricultural year in Canaan to remind his people of his acts of love in the past. This we know. In parallel fashion God shaped the spring and fall harvests to prepare his Old Testament people for their glorious future in Christ. In the process of developing meaning for all three feasts of the seventh month, no Scripture has been overturned. Scripture has not been broken.

If care is taken, the way is open for us to feast on the fullness of Christ in the Old Testament. At the same time our enthusiasm must be tempered with the knowledge that the Christian Church has suffered violence as a result of careless interpretation.

The Eastern church was influenced greatly by the third century churchman Origen and the school of interpretation centered in Alexandria, Egypt. Origen made Scripture fit the learned opinions of his day. He may be considered the father of all modern attempts to force Scripture to conform to human wisdom. Origen was scandalized by Scripture when parts of it described life, warts and all. He had no patience for apparent contradictions in the text. Neither vulgar realism nor careless reporting were worthy of the mind of God. As a result Origen convinced himself and his followers to see a deeper meaning beyond the plain statements of Scripture. Before long it was fashionable to see several levels of hidden meaning behind every passage, particularly in the Old Testament. Scripture’s simple, literal sense was pushed aside in favor of symbolical, figurative, moralistic, and mystical interpretations.

Some of this penetrated the Western church. Philosophy, however, did not derail interpretation. Tradition did. Busy, burdened churchmen relied more and more on pious opinions. These were gathered by respected ecclesiastical authorities and handed down. Tradition evolved into Canon Law once the political stability established by the Roman Empire dissolved and the resulting vacuum was filled by the disorder and ignorance of the Middle Ages. By Luther’s time Scripture had become the church’s prisoner. The medieval church had its traditional teachings. It went to the Bible to find proof, rather than the other way around.

Luther turned the eyes of believers to the authority of Scripture itself. The Bible alone had the power to explain itself, Luther asserted. The simple meaning of words in context had to be taken seriously. Because the true church belonged to those who feasted on Word and Sacrament, Luther expected well-fed hearts to be led by the Holy Spirit to confess the truth correctly and sensibly. Laymen armed with Scripture, he believed, were more powerful than popes and councils. In every way Luther led the people who read their Bibles back to the Lord Jesus Christ, not to human wisdom or human tradition.

Where Luther stood, we should stand. We should not move beyond Luther to hammer Scripture into a systematic, forcefully harmonized dogmatic creation. This would result in dead orthodoxism. Nor should we allow a pious desire to reform people and to force an outwardly better Christian fellowship to divert us from the arduous task of examining the words and context of Scripture. This would be vapid pietism. We should not walk in step with Origen’s modern disciples either. They demythologize and dissect what God revealed long ago. Instead of giving the Bible meaning, they leave the Word empty. Nor should Scripture be considered a religious “survival of the fittest.” The truth of God did not evolve from disconnected primitive scribblings into a tome that still needs redaction. Above all, we who are heirs of a conservative confessional heritage should not in medieval fashion follow what our churchmen say, right or wrong, because we are too busy, too harried, or too ignorant.

Church history may give us a very good reason to appreciate the unique place which fulfilled prophecy occupies within God’s plan. Finding Christ in the Old Testament is orthodox. A lifetime of careful searches, however, will not yield pre-wrapped dogmatic packages. Finding Christ in the Old Testament requires the skills of a good historical-exegetical interpreter. Still, our most polished analysis will not explain the mysterious working of the Spirit who tears down reason and builds up faith for living. Finding Christ revealed in a consistent way over the full 1500-year span that separates the prophet Moses and the apostle John makes it well nigh impossible to elevate the wisdom of a single man or of a single generation to the status of Scripture’s judge and jury. Our discovery of Christ in the Old Testament will not allow us to enshrine the traditions of the visible church and its churchmen either. The Lord Jesus is the last Word for the church, not the other way around.

Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets anticipated him and the apostles proclaimed him, is our all!

Notes

¹² Pentecost as the anniversary of the giving of the Ten Commandments is part of the Jewish tradition. Israel completed the journey from Egypt to Sinai in the third month, “on the very day” (Ex 19:1). Passover occurred in the middle of the first month, leaving two weeks. To the two weeks add the 28 or 29 days of the second month. Then, to the “very day” which opened the third month, add three days of preparation (Ex 19:15). If setting up the camp preceding the preparation (Ex 19:2) took four additional days, the total between the first Passover in Egypt and the giving of the Ten Commandments would have been 50 days (14+29+4+3).

¹³ The Jewish historian Josephus considered Tabernacles to be the holiest and greatest of the Hebrew feasts, Antiquities VIII, iv, 1. Jesus honored this feast (Jn 7), which had more sacrifices than any other festival (Nu 29).

The Rev. Dr. John C. Lawrenz (1943–2024) began his ministry as pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Gainesville, Florida. He went on to serve as president of Michigan Lutheran Seminary and of Dr. Martin Luther College and as professor of Old Testament at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. At Brandeis University he earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in foreign language, followed by a PhD in Mediterranean studies. He finished his ministry as the founding president of Asia Lutheran Seminary in Hong Kong, where he also taught. He participated in several important archaeological digs in Israel, travelled with his Hebrew and Old Testament students to Israel, served sabbaticals in a variety of world mission settings, and was a popular speaker throughout the CELC. Dr. Lawrenz was called home to glory on September 22, 2024.