Approaching the Cross - The Old Testament

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There’s a few factors to putting together an image of what the Old Testament expected to happen with Jesus. It’s a meaty subject, but I want to help you get through it - because I think it’s really important.

The beginning of time - the garden. The fall.

Genesis 3:14-15

Genesis 3:14–15 NIV

So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Now, Paul points out later, when Genesis says ‘her offspring’, the phrase is singular.

so, it’s not like God is saying, ‘humanity will always be at war with your evil influence’. No. He’s saying - one day, someone will come, who is going to crush your head.

So when did God’s plan to deal with sin start? Right here. From the first moment.

With Adam and Eve, the curses on them were consequences - with the snake, God shows a plan as well.

This plan weaves it’s way through the entire old testament, and I want to jump around a bit and show you.

Fast forward a bit. We meet Abraham.

Abraham’s a big figure in the old testament.

Genesis 12:2-3

Genesis 12:2–3 NIV

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

We see a lot of this get fulfilled in the OT. Abraham’s line becomes a great nation. He gets blessed. His name becomes great. Whoever blesses him gets blessed, whoever curses him gets cursed.

But then there’s this one last line - all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. And that one’s nada. Israel is, at best, getting by, and at worst, actively making things worse.

But this is inherent to the abrahamic call - that Abraham is designed to be a blessing to the world.

Let’s jump ahead some more.

we skip ahead a few generations, and we’re starting to see the realization of most of Abraham’s promise - there is a man named Israel, he has 12 sons, each one will become a tribe in a great nation. One of them is named Judah.

When Israel was dying, he prophesied over each of his sons. And this is what he had to say about Judah:

Genesis 49:10

Genesis 49:10 NIV

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

So, Judah’s descendents will not just rule, but one is coming who will have the obedience of all the nations. He’ll be the king above all the kings of the earth.

Later, we get told, this king will be specifically in the line of David. One of the things God tells David is that God is going to raise up one of David’s sons, and give him a throne and a kingdom that will be established forever.

Isaiah and the Suffering Servant

So we’re starting to see this collective picture. God has a plan to crush evil and the source of death itself - our sinfulness.

Now, Our perspective on God sometimes is that he is hunting us down, that we screwed things up! We dropped the ball, and now He’s come to judge us! That he sees our sin, he can’t stand it, and he’s going to judge us because of it.

But all through the old testament, we see God building things up. God blessing for no other reason than to show how Good He is.

God blesses Abraham, and plan’s to use one of his descendents to bless the entire world.

God blesses Judah, and plans to give one of his descendants a throne above all nations.

God blesses David, and promises that this same throne, prophesied to Judah, will have one of his descendants on it, and it will be eternal

Now, with the new testament, we understand that there’s a single person who inherits all of these prophecies and promises - and it’s Jesus.

Jesus is the way that God was going to bless the world through Abraham.

Jesus is the person that Judah was told was going to stand above all the kingdoms of the earth

Jesus is the one that David is told will hold his throne forever

But in all of these amazing ways that Jesus is the king above all, in all the ways that the nations will be His, and the throne will be His forever - there’s still the problem of sin. There’s still a snake that needs it’s head crushed.

In Isaiah, there’s a big prophesy. And i’ll read it in a minute.

So in isaiah, God sees the sins of humanity. He sees all the ways that we deserve pain and suffering. He’s lined up a punishment - he’s brought the death sentence.

And then he....does what?

If you’ve ever done anything wrong, like, pretty wrong, regretfully wrong, you know what the next step feels like it should be. You know the punishment is coming. You know there’s a consequence. And you’re really not looking forward to it.

We think that, now’s that time, now we’re going to get what we deserve. We’re going to be punished, because we’ve done bad things. We’ve hurt people. We’ve lied. We’ve cheated. We’ve stolen.

This is the part of the story where God sweeps in, and punishes all the wrongdoers. He defeats all the bad guys, us included, and shows how great and how big and how awesome and how powerful of a king He really is.

The trouble is - that isn’t what happened.

Isaiah 53:2-6

Isaiah 53:2–6 NIV

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

And in the new testament, we have the benefit of understanding that this someone else is Jesus, God’s son. God made flesh.

Now, we see all these other prophecies. We see that Jesus was meant to be king above all. He was meant to hold a throne forever. Surely such a mighty and powerful king knows how to bring justice!

But this doesn’t sound kingly. Someone who gets rejected, someone who is desipised. He’s familiar with pain. People hide their faces from him. God deserves more than that!

But the trouble is - is that God is also exceedingly good. He loves us deeply. And he doesn’t want to lose us. So rather than use his great power to show us how much better than us He is - God is going to bend all of his power and might towards showing us just how much He loves us.

With Jesus, God saw our sins, he took the punishment prepared for us - and he punished Jesus. He wounded him so that he could heal us. He crushed him so that he could build us up. He pierced him so that he could make us whole.

Jesus took every punishment, every stripe, every consequence intended for us - and He bore it. because he knew we couldn’t. And he loved us.

And in Jesus, we see the total and complete fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan for humanity. But we also see the amazing extent of God’s love.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to unpack just what it means to come up to the cross of Christ. How much it changes our world. How much it gives us, and how much it asks of us in return.

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