Death and Resurrection in the Old Testament
Luke 24:25-27
While he was in high school, our oldest son’s 1968 Ford Mustang GT suddenly died on Park Street one day, here in St. Petersburg, FL. His Mustang GT was completely original and unrestored, with well over 100,000 miles on the odometer. Upon diagnosis of the motor, the heart of the Mustang, we discovered that the original camshaft in the 390-4v engine had snapped-in-half. No wonder the ponycar died on the street. But that Mustang was meant to run on the road and run fast. Small car, big motor.
We had a choice: replace the camshaft, or, do a complete overhaul of the motor. Since the motor itself had 100,000-plus miles on it since the day it rolled off the assembly line way back in 1968, we decided to bring the Mustang back to life by overhauling the motor; in other words, do a heart-rebuild, but not a heart-transplant. The Mustang GT needed a resurrection.
On the afternoon of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the first day of the week, he politely scolded the two travelers walking on the road to their home in Emmaus (Luke 24:13ff). The words they spoke to Jesus—whom they were prohibited from seeing—indicated that their hopes had been dashed when Jesus didn’t turn out to be the Messiah they expected him to be. The engine of their faith had suffered a major blow. Good place to review the factors that led to their failure of faith.
Three Days of Hopelessness
Earlier that week, on Friday afternoon, Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross, as dead as a dead man can be. In their view, Israel’s Messiah wasn’t expected to suffer and die. But Jesus certainly did suffer and die. He died tragically while hanging on a cross, the death-penalty usually reserved for criminals. What a total let-down for the hearts of Jesus’ followers. They failed to see that coming. Thus, their hopes and expectations were dashed and discouragement set in. Three days of sheer hopelessness.
After listening to their thoughts and troubles—like a good disciple-maker and counselor that he was--Jesus identified their problem as foolishness and a slow-heart of faith. They were slow to believe all that the Scriptures had promised. The engine of their faith had slowed down. Observe:
25 So he said to them, “You foolish people—how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Wasn’t it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 Then, beginning with Moses {the Pentateuch, Genesis—Deut} and all the prophets {the Prophets include Joshua—Malachi}, he interpreted to them the things written about himself in all the Scriptures {Jesus’ tripartite Hebrew Bible}. Luke 24:25-27
The Scriptures: The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings
Jesus’ tripartite Bible, made up of three divisions, the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, what we call “the Old Testament,” or better, the TaNaKh, announces a future coming Messiah through both the content and its canonical arrangement.[1] All three divisions of the Old Testament show the same pattern revealed in the life of Jesus Christ: first, the messianic figure suffers; then he enters a period of glory and exaltation. All the Old Testament, in each of its three divisions, other words, is messianic, foreshadowing death, resurrection, ascension, anticipating Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension to glory.
But the two travelers and the rest of Jesus’ followers missed this repeated pattern. So, have we. When we discuss death and resurrection, we think naturally of the four Gospels and 1 Corinthians 15. But rarely does anyone think of death and resurrection in the same sentence with the Old Testament. The two travelers overlooked the pattern of death, resurrection, and ascension in the Old Testament. But so have we.
Why, then, don’t we take a second look? But using a canonical approach to the Scripture, we will be able to observe what we’ve missed. Jesus’ words to the two travelers can serve as fresh motivation.
The Scriptures Promised Suffering First and a Resurrection
Jesus identified himself as the key to interpreting their Bible. He makes the claim, through his question, “Wasn’t it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter his glory?” In other words, Israel’s Messiah HAD to suffer first. Suffering was non-negotiable.
Jesus’ question posed to the travelers requires a “yes,” according to the rules of Greek grammar and syntax. So, “yes,” it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer death on a cross and resurrection before he entered his glory. First, suffering, the cross, and death; then, resurrection, the crown and glory.
Jesus’ Death was Not a Mistake
Jesus’ suffering and death, though tragic, was not a mistake. God did not sit on the edge of heaven, look down at the crucifixion on Friday afternoon, and say, “Whatever happened? How did things go south so fast? This wasn’t the way it was supposed to play out.”
Jesus’ death was an integral part of the prophetic plan in God’s redemptive program. The Hebrew Bible foretold this sequence of death first, and then, glory.
But the two travelers were slow to believe what they read in their Bibles. And so, the death of Jesus on a Roman cross was unexpected and killed their hopes. The motor in their hearts came to a stop on Friday afternoon. Discouragement set in.
False Expectations. Unexamined assumptions. They can get us into trouble. But what actually caused their hopelessness, Jesus’ death, was precisely what was necessary for them to have ultimate hope and joy. Unbelief in what the Scriptures have said, or slow to believe, is so messed up.
Examples of Death and Resurrection in the Hebrew Bible
What Scriptures did Jesus take them to in order to show that the Messiah had to suffer first? Where in the Hebrew Bible can we see the suffering of a Messianic figure and then observe his resurrection from death? A canonical approach to the Hebrew Bible shows the sequence of death first, and then, resurrection and ascension. This pattern is shown across all three divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures in multiple ways. This is the blessing of interpreting the Bible in the same way in which it was written: from a canonical standpoint.
Here are a just a few examples of the sequence of death first, and then, resurrection, each Messianic figure foreshadowing the future pattern of a suffering and resurrected Messiah. Let’s observe just a few examples of many.
1. Example from The Pentateuch/Torah: A Death Threat and a resurrection: the pattern of Joseph’s life
Joseph is stripped of his kingly, royal garments (Gen 37:3,23), thrown down into a pit by his brothers. The “pit” is the place where he still resides while in Egypt (same Hebrew word used in Gen 40:15). His descent into Egypt is a kind of death; his ascent to rulership, a kind of resurrection (Levenson, p. 152). Death is certain. It appears to be a hopeless situation.
But Joseph is delivered from the pit (resurrection), his old slave garments are eventually changed (Gen 41:14), and he reappears miraculously many years later as second-in-command of Egypt (ascension). His death is so real in the mind of his brothers and father that they never recognize him or even suspect his inquiries regarding their family. He is disbelieved for a while by both his brothers and father. Finally, when he reveals himself, they are stunned. His father Jacob finds it extremely hard to believe Joseph is alive. The Genesis writer portrays these events as a type of resurrection from the dead. Joseph suffered a type of death first (the pit), but then reappears alive to his family in a miraculous way and exalted as second in command of the world’s greatest superpower (ascension to glory).
Isaac and Joseph
The pattern of Joseph’s death and resurrection can stand by itself. But his story is a mirror, reflecting back to his grandfather Isaac.
Observe how Joseph’s experience repeats the same pattern as Isaac: Joseph’s brothers kill a goat (blood is shed) in his place, while a ram is slain (blood is shed) in the place of Isaac. Both Isaac, the beloved son of Abraham, and Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob, are restored eventually to the fathers. Both Isaac and Joseph, as beloved sons, are the firstborn of the father’s favorite wife (Sarah, Rachel). Both Joseph (Gen 37: 18-24) and Isaac (22:7) state their willingness to obey.
Do you see the pattern? The pattern of Joseph’s and Isaac’s experience, suffering first, then resurrection, foreshadows the same pattern of Jesus’ death (blood is shed in all three cases), resurrection, and entrance to glory. First suffering, then resurrection. Joseph and Isaac are messianic figures, intended to prepare the nation of Israel for a future, suffering Messiah who also sheds his blood.
But even Jesus’ disciples and followers were slow to believe what they read in the life of Joseph and Isaac. Jesus taught them these truths over the years he was with them, but they were slow to believe (Luke 24:44).
2. Another Example from the Pentateuch/Torah: Death and Resurrection through water. Noah and Moses.
The story of the flood in Genesis 6-8 and the story of Moses’ birth in Exodus 2 are linked together intentionally by the writer at many levels. For example, the Hebrew term “ark” is used in both stories, but never used again in the Old Testament.
The protagonists in both stories, Noah and Moses, are delivered from watery deaths in arks made of trees (Genesis 6:14 uses the Hebrew term “tree” as the building material, not “wood” as in English translations) and covered with pitch. The word “ark,” used in both stories, comes from an Egyptian term meaning “casket.” The ark in both stories are caskets, the resting place of the dead.
Moses was placed in an ark, a basket made of papyrus, a plant growing along the sides of the Nile River. The papyrus plant is a type of a tree. By means of a tree, both Noah and Moses are rescued from certain death, placed in a casket, and are then resurrected. Both men pass through water and end up on a mountain for worship (Noah: Mount Ararat; Moses: Mount Sinai). The pattern is this: death is threatened. Noah and Moses are rescued from death by a casket, made from a tree, a tree which provides life. They both exit these caskets, these arks, a type of resurrection, and ascend up a mountain to worship God. On that mountain, God makes a covenant with them (Noahic Covenant, Sinai Covenant).
See the pattern: death, burial, resurrection, ascension, worship. The pattern of Jesus to the tee. But the two travelers missed it.
3. Example from The Writings: A Death Threat and a Resurrection: Daniel
The pattern of Daniel’s life follows the same pattern we observed in Joseph’s experience. He is the target of a death plot and thrown into a lions’ pit, a consignment to certain death. But Daniel is then miraculously delivered alive, to everyone’s surprise. His deliverance from the pit is a type of resurrection. Daniel is elevated to a position of power in a Gentle kingdom, just as was the case with Joseph.
Daniel suffered first, and then, was resurrected from the pit in a miraculous way. The pattern of Daniel’s sequence of suffering first, and resurrection second, and eventual ascension, foreshadows the same pattern seen in Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension.
Daniel, like Joseph, is a messianic figure. Daniel’s story was intended by God to prepare Israel for a suffering and resurrected Messiah. But even Jesus’ disciples failed to accept the concept of a suffering Christ. They failed to believe the pattern, repeated over and over again. The motor of their faith needed an overhaul.
The same pattern can be observed with the three Hebrew men thrown into the fiery furnace, only to emerge, surprisingly alive and well, even without the smell of smoke on their clothing (Daniel 3). Death seemed a certainty, inevitable. But all men were miraculously delivered and emerged from the furnace very much alive. Afterward resurrection, they were promoted (ascended, 3:30). See the pattern? See the same sequence? First, suffering. Then, deliverance and ascension.
4. Another Example from The Writings: A Death Threat and a Resurrection: Mordecai
Mordechai, Esther’s uncle, was doomed to die. A hanging gallows was built especially for him out of trees (he was doomed to die, by hanging on a tree) by Haman, Israel’s arch enemy, presented by the writer as a seed of the serpent (Gen 3:15). Death is certain.
But Mordechai is miraculously delivered from death, a hanging on a tree, and appears very much alive. Eventually, he ascends and is made second-in-command in a Gentile kingdom and crowned with a crown on his head, rides around the city on a horse, hailed as a powerful hero.
The pattern of Mordechai’s experience—suffering first, resurrection and ascension second, foreshadows the pattern of Jesus’ suffering and resurrection and ascension. Mordecai, like Joseph and Daniel, is a messianic figure. But Jesus’ disciples failed to believe what they read. Consequently, they were unprepared for the suffering and death of Jesus.
These canonical examples are just the tip of the iceberg in Jesus’ Hebrew Bible. There is so much more. Following are a few samples that I will just touch on.
Psalms-Job
The book of Job follows the Psalms in Jesus’ Hebrew Bible. The Psalms focus on the rejection and suffering of a royal figure who overcomes death and is exalted. For instance, Psalm 22, 23, and 24 follow that pattern (Psalms 20-24 is a unit bound together by numerous links). The royal figure is rejected and meets his demise in Psalm 22. But in Psalm 23, we find that same figure restored to life (23:3: “he caused my life to return,” “naphshi yeshovev,” refers to a literal resurrection of life {nephesh refers to life} from the death, affirmed in 22:29), alive and well, dwelling in a restored Eden, the house of the Lord. Psalm 24 describes his worthiness and grand entrance into glory. First, suffering and crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation. See the pattern?[2]
So, the Psalms, messianic in nature, prepare us for the book of Job. It, too, contains another example of a messianic figure who experiences the same pattern. To most readers, Job hardly seems messianic. But from a canonical viewpoint, Job is ultra-messianic. The pattern revealed in Job foreshadows the same pattern in Jesus’ experience: the suffering of a righteous man, first, followed by resurrection, and restoration, second.
The two travelers missed the messianic pattern in the Psalms and Job.
Proverbs
Here's another sample. The book of Proverbs follows Job in the TaNaKh. It might not appear to be messianic in nature. But it is explicitly and overtly messianic, looking forward to a messiah who is both royal (kingly), the creator, departs from evil, and is known for great wisdom.
Genesis 1:1
Even the first word in the Hebrew Bible is messianic (Gen 1:1). The first word, reshit, combined with the preposition b, making it, bereshit, refers predominantly in the Pentateuch (the Book of the Law) to the first-fruits of the womb (Exod 23:19; 34:26; Lev 26:10; Numb 18:12; Deut 18:4; 26:10) and soil.
This is unsurprising when we consider God’s original command to Adam and Eve command to bear children and fill the earth is described as being fruitful: “Be fruitful and multiply”, Gen 1:28. Human beings and trees (and all the variations of trees—seeds, roots, vines, fruit, branches, trunks, crops, thickets, baskets, leaves, ropes, mangers, cross) are closely associated closely together throughout Scripture (ex: Psalm 1: “He shall be like a tree”; “I am the vine,” John 15).
Jacob, for instance, called his firstborn son, Reuben, “his firstborn” and his first-fruit, his “reshit” (same exact word used first in Genesis 1:1), the first-fruits of the womb (Psalm 127:5—“the fruit of the womb is a reward”), the first-fruit of his strength (Gen 49:3). Reuben was Jacob’s first-born son, that is, the first-fruits of many other children: second-fruits, third-fruits, many other sons born to Jacob (the 12 tribes of Israel).
Pictured here is a Jewish translation and interpretation of Genesis 1:1 in the Targum Neofiti in Aramaic. The first word of Genesis 1:1, reading from right to left, is the same term as in Hebrew Bible: bereshit.
Here is the English translation from the Aramaic:
In the beginning through wisdom, the Son of the Lord finished the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1.
The Jewish translator interpreted the first word in Genesis 1:1, bereshit, as “the Son of the Lord,” an interpretation of what “first-fruit” meant. It was “the Son of the Lord,” the Firstborn, who created the organized universe (Colossians 1:15-16; John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:1-2).
The apostle Paul interprets Jesus Christ as the reshit, the firstborn, and the first-fruits from the dead, when he comments on Genesis 1:1 (from the LXX) in Colossians 1:15-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:23. Jesus is the Son of God, but he also is like Reuben, the first-fruits of many more sons and daughters in God’s family, who also will be raised from the dead. Jesus is the first son to rise from the dead, but he is not the last son or daughter. Many more will follow. Jesus, as the first-fruits from the dead, will bring many more sons and daughters to glory.
So, even the very first word of the Bible is messianic in nature, foreshadowing the death and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.[3] The first word in the Bible contains the Gospel of Jesus Christ in nuce.
Summary
Let’s recap where we have traveled. Each of the three divisions of Jesus’ Old Testament, better titled as the TaNaKh, composed of the Pentateuch (the Torah), the Prophets (the Nebi’im), and the Writings (the Ketuvim), are put together messianically in terms of their chronology as well as the content of each book. They point ahead to a suffering, resurrected, and ascended Messiah.
Jesus Overhauls the Hearts of the Two Travelers
But it appears that the two travelers on the road to Emmaus were turtle-like in their readiness to believe the Scriptures. A very-slow-faith. The engine of their faith needed a major overhaul by an experienced, Bible mechanic. Jesus provided that necessary overhaul of their hearts as they walked home.
Observe: He didn’t take them to see the empty tomb. He could have. It was only a short walk to the tomb. The empty tomb would not have convinced them. The earlier report of the discovery of the empty tomb failed to convince the disciples (24:22-24). He didn’t reveal himself to them with a spectacular show of lights and smoke. The major principle of Scripture is that faith—belief—trust--comes by hearing the voice of God, the Word of God spoken, not by watching a display of talent on a stage or by seeing a glitzy show or a dramatic production. Our hearing is regarded as the source of truth (Deut 4:12). Our eyes are the most susceptible of our senses to deception.[4]
Hearing God’s Voice is the Source of Truth
Our hearing is the safest, most reliable sense God has given us. This is why the Bible contains no pictures. Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice”—not see my face (John 10:27; 10:3-5). In the very next chapter, John shows us how even dead Lazarus heard the voice of Jesus (did not see his face) and arose from the dead (11:43-44). “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things NOT seen (Heb 11:1).” “Faith,” asserts Paul, “comes by hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). “Look, I stand at the door and knock,” Jesus said to the church at Laodicea, “If anyone hears my voice (not, “sees my face”) and opens the door, I will come in with him, have supper with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20. Hearing the voice is the source of truth.
Jesus showed them from all the Scriptures—God’s voice to us--that the suffering of Israel’s Messiah was necessary first, before he entered glory. The two travelers listened to his voice while teaching the Scripture, the voice of God. Jesus taught the Bible to them from a canonical standpoint.
Jesus’ overhaul of their hearts through Scripture made such a difference. It lit their hearts on fire (24:32). Slow-hearts to hearts-ablaze. Their hopelessness turned to joy.
After the departure of the two travelers, Jesus appeared to a group of his followers that evening. Observe how Jesus once again turns to the Scriptures as the key to understanding his life and death on the cross as an essential part of God’s redemptive program.
These are the things that I told you while I was still with you: that everything written about me in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (the first book in the third section called “the Writings”) must be fulfilled. Luke 24:44
I am disheartened that, while Jesus found himself in the Old Testament, modern evangelical scholars do not seem to be able to do the same.[5] Who should we believe?
Jesus had told his followers about how the entire Old Testament was packed with stories about him, stories that had to be fulfilled, stories of a messianic figure who suffered first, but then experienced miraculous deliverance. But his followers failed to believe what they heard from the mouth of Jesus for three years. They, too, were foolish and slow to believe what Jesus and the Scriptures had clearly stated.
Nothing wrong with Jesus’ teaching or the Scriptures. Everything wrong with their faith. Their faith-motor needed a major overhaul by a Scripture mechanic. The dramatic results of that faith-overhaul can be seen in the confidence and boldness of the same apostles after Jesus’ ascension in Acts.
Overhauling Made a Difference
The major overhaul of the 390-4v engine in our oldest son’s 1968 Ford Mustang GT made such a difference in performance. His mustang, once dead on the street, was now on the road again, resurrected back to life. The pony-car was now much quicker, more energy efficient, and more powerful. The Mustang GT, powered by a freshly overhauled 390-4v motor, took him to his high school classes and football practice so much faster. No more tardies and hopefully, no tickets either.
Thank you for reading.
Tim Cole
BA, BS, ThM, DMin, MPhil, PhD
[1] Our English Old Testament, alas, follows the sequence from the LXX, the Greek version of the Old Testament, rather than Jesus’ Hebrew version. This is most unfortunate. By messing up the correct sequence from what we find in Jesus’ Hebrew Bible, we lose some of the Messianic structure of the original Old Testament; the Messianic structure is important in my view, but I digress.
[2] For a scholarly explanation of the messianic significance and sequence of Ps 22-24, based upon the Hebrew text of Scripture, see Why Psalm 23 is Not About You, by Robert L. Cole (Athens: College and Clayton Press, 2020). See also “Psalm 22: The Suffering of the Messianic King,” by Robert L. Cole, in The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2019), pp. 529-542.
[3] Both the first produce of the soil (the first-fruits) and of human progeny (the first-born) belong to the God of Israel and must be given back to God as offerings or a substitute given for it (Exod 22:28-29; Numb 3:11-13). God’s portion of the first-fruits or the firstborn must be the priority, the first, and, also the best. This requirement of Israel suggests that God’s bereshit, his firstborn son, the best, too, must be given back to God as an offering. The narratives of Isaac and Joseph, both firstborn sons of their father’s favorite wife (Sarah, Rachel) illustrate the point. Joseph’s brothers slay a goat in place of him while a ram is killed in the place of Isaac. Both sons, like Jesus, are explicitly beloved by their fathers (Gen 22:7; 37:13; Luke 3:21-22), undergo a near-death experience, blood is shed as a substitute, and both are restored alive (resurrection) to their fathers. This suggests that the very first word of the Bible, reshit, First-fruits/Firstborn, contains redemptive (the beloved firstborn son must be given back to God) and resurrection seeds. In other words, the very first word in the Bible is messianic in nature, pointing ahead to Jesus, God’s Firstborn, who died, was raised as the first-fruits from the dead, leading the way for all his followers. The first word in the Bible is the Gospel in seed form.
[4] The story of Isaac’s deception by his son Jacob in Genesis 27 illustrates this principle. Isaac ignored the voice of Jacob (Gen 27:22), but trusted his taste, his touch through groping hands, and his nose. He was deceived because he ignored Jacob’s voice and trusted his other senses.
[5] One example of many evangelical scholars who fail to find Jesus in Isaiah 7:14, Matthew’s OT basis for his claim that Jesus’ virgin birth was the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14, in Matthew 1:22-23, is as follows. “Exegesis gives us no clue that Isaiah had been aware that he was speaking of the Messiah. The child’s name {Immanuel} merely expressed the hope that accompanied God’s deliverance.” J. H. Walton, “Isa 7:14: What’s in a Name?” JETS 30 (1980), p. 300. In other words, according to this writer, Matthew took liberties when he quoted Isaiah 7:14 as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. Apparently, Matthew made a mistake. His Hebrew must have been rusty.