Seven Gospel Pictures in the Old Testament
by Miles McKee

“What is meant by calling the writings of Moses and the Prophets [the] "Old Testament?" Do they not set forth the covenant of grace? The doctrine of justification by faith - does not Paul in his Epistle to the Romans prove it from Genesis and from the Psalms? Where is the doctrine of substitution and the vicarious sufferings of the Messiah set forth more clearly than in Leviticus and in the 53rd of Isaiah? The term "Old Testament" leads people to fancy it is an antiquated book; whereas, in many respects, it is newer than the New Testament, referring more fully to the age of glory and blessedness on the earth which is still before us.”
(Adolph Saphir: Christ and Israel)

The Gospel, according to Rom 1:2, is to found and discovered in the writings of the Old Testament Prophets. Space will not allow for a full exposition of this topic as page after page of the Old Testament can be clearly seen to be about Jesus. He shows up in its pages in types, shadows and pictures. In fact, someone has rightly observed, “The Old Testament is a book about Jesus.” Others have pointed out He appears in every book of the Bible. Here is a suggested breakdown showing how He is pictured in each book:

Genesis: The Seed of the Woman
Exodus: The Passover Lamb
Leviticus: The High Priest
Numbers: The Pillar of Cloud and The pillar of Fire by night
Deuteronomy: The Prophet Like Moses and the Great Rock
Joshua: The Captain of The Lord of Hosts
Judges: The Judge And Lawgiver
Ruth: The Kinsman Redeemer
1 & 2 Samuel: The Trusted Prophet
1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles: The Reigning King
Ezra: The Lord of Heaven and Earth
Nehemiah: The Rebuilder of The Broken Walls
Esther: Mordecai
Job: The Daysman Mediator
Psalms: The Lord Our Shepherd
Proverbs & Ecclesiastes: The Wisdom of God
The Song of Solomon :The Lover & Bridegroom and the Chief among 10,000
Isaiah: The Suffering Servant, The Mighty God and The Prince of Peace
Jeremiah & Lamentations: The LORD our Righteousness and The Weeping Prophet
Ezekiel: The Wheel Turning and The Four faced man.
Daniel: The 4th Man in The Fiery Furnace
Hosea: The Faithful Husband
Joel: The One Who Pours out His Spirit
Amos: The Restored Tabernacle of David
Obadiah: Deliverance
Jonah: The God of a Second Chance
Micah: The One who will be ruler in Israel
Nahum: The Publisher of Peace
Habakkuk: The Minister of God crying out For Revival
Zephaniah: The Restorer of God's Lost Heritage
Haggai: The Glory of the Latter House
Zechariah: The Fountain opened up for Sin and uncleanness
Malachi: The Son of Righteousness rising with healing in His wings

In the Old Testament there are seven prominent pictures of Jesus and His substitutionary sacrifice. In each instance innocent blood was sacrificially offered. Let’s look briefly at these seven pictures and see how they pre- figure and point towards the Lord Jesus Christ and His substitutionary death at Calvary

Picture 1

The first picture is found in Genesis 3:21 and is often referred to as ‘Jehovah’s blood sacrifice’. It tells of how The Lord clothed the nakedness of our first parents with animal skins. Adam and Eve had sinned and in their nakedness were vainly trying to cover themselves with fig leaves. Sin had left them ashamed so they hid themselves from God but God, in His mercy, came looking for them. Adam and Eve give us a clear picture of all mankind! There’s no one actually seeking for God, we are all in hiding (Rom 3:11). But God, rather than leaving us to our own devices, comes seeking after us. In the Garden He calls out, “Adam where are you?” This is not the voice of a policeman rather it is the voice of Grace pointing us to the One who came to seek and to save them that are lost, the Lord Jesus Christ.

After telling our first parents the consequences of their sin, The Lord then preaches a wordless sermon in symbols and actions as He cloths our first parents with animal skins. And where did he get the skins? He had to kill the animals of course! And here we witness the first High Priestly act in human history. The Lord Himself killed innocent animals clothing His sinful children with their skins. The innocent died in place of the guilty. A substitute was found and Adam and Eve were clothed in that which was provided by another. Adam and Eve witnessed death for the first time, it was horrid, but it was a death caused by their sin.

Right from the start of human history the tone is set with this prophetic picture. The Lord was clearly showing there will be salvation but not by human deeds or merit. There will be salvation but it will take the shed blood of an innocent victim. There will be salvation but only through a substitute. This first high priestly act points firmly to the Lord Jesus the innocent victim substitute who has died in our place and has clothed us with His own righteousness. As Arthur Pink says,

“Before the Fall, God had defined the wages of sin: "In the day you eat thereof thou shalt surely die." God is righteous, and as Judge of all the earth He must do right. His law had been broken and justice cried aloud for the enforcing of its penalty. But is justice to override mercy! Is there no way by which grace can reign through righteousness? Blessed be God there is, there was. Mercy desired to spare the offender and because justice demands death, another shall be slain in his place. The Lord God clothed Adam and Eve with skins, and in order to procure these skins animals must have been slain, life must have been taken, blood must have been shed! And in this way was a covering provided for the fallen and ruined sinner. The application of the type is obvious. The Death of the Son of God was for-shadowed. Because the Lord Jesus laid down His life for the sheep God can now be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Pink: Gleanings in Genesis)

Before we leave this first picture, notice what The Lord did not do. He didn’t present Adam and Eve with a copy of the Ten Commandments. Why not? The Ten Commandments can only show us our sin but they can not cleanse us from sin.

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

The Law can not do anything about sin. Adam didn’t need an indictment he needed a solution. In grace, the solution was provided by God himself through the shedding of innocent blood and this pointed towards the Gospel of Christ.

Picture 2

The second picture we find is in the story of Cain and Abel (Gen 4:1-5). Here we see the horror of murder in what was the first ever dysfunctional family. It is a gripping story of two men, two altars and two sacrifices. It’s the drama of two men standing before God waiting for a verdict. One man, Cain, had worked hard to bring a sacrifice to God. He was a religious man, a hard worker who had brought the produce of his own hand to his altar. Abel, on the other hand, brought a substitutionary sacrifice. He had heard from his parents that God required the sacrifice of innocent blood to atone for sin. How do we know that? We know it because of Hebrews 11:4; there we are told that, ‘by faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice:’ But where did he get the faith? The scripture gives us the answer. It tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10:17). Therefore, it is evident that Abel had heard the Gospel from his parents. He had heard that God’s wrath could be turned away by the shedding of the blood of an innocent substitute. Again Arthur Pink writes,

“In the slaying of the animal, the offerer identified himself with his offering and acknowledged that he was a sinner, that he deserved nothing but judgment at God’s hands, that death was his legitimate due. In the slaying of the offering with which the offerer had identified himself, he saw the death of his substitute, the meeting of God’s claims, the satisfying of Divine justice, and that, because his substitute had died in his stead, he went free. (Pink: Gleanings in Genesis)

The Lord rejected Cain’s offering for it was the work of man’s hand. Once again we clearly see that our work and goodness can never impress God enough to cancel our sin. As for Abel, if he had so much as added a daisy to this sacrifice it would have totally invalidated his offering because, when it comes to this business of right standing before Him, God will accept none of our contributions! The old hymn is right:

Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a guilty stain
He washed it white as snow.

Everything we need has already been provided in the Christ event. But surely there is something I can bring? Yes there is one thing but only one thing; the only thing God asks us to bring to Him is our sin. He does not want what we have earned or what we can do for him or what we’ve accomplished or what we have sweated for. Salvation is not a do it yourself kit, it’s something we must take as a free gift or not at all. The Lord could say to us,

“Not the labour of your hands,
Can fulfill my laws demands,
Could your zeal no respite know,
Could your tears forever flow?
All for sin could not atone,
I must save and I alone”.

Picture 3

The third graphic picture of blood sacrifice is found in Genesis 8: 20-32.
We all know this story, the story of Noah and the big boat! There’s a endearing little children’s song about it which goes, “The animals went in two by two, hurrah, hurrah! The elephant and the kangaroo, hurrah, hurrah! They all went in just to get in out of the rain”. But of course the song, cute as it is, is nonsense. They didn’t go in two by two, only the unclean animals went in two by two ----the clean animals went in by sevens.

Believe it or not their names are Adam and Eve

The first murder:
Cain kills Abel.
Who says the Gospel is popular?