Where is Jesus in the Old Testament?
This is a question some of us must have thought. Some might not have noticed and most must have been aware of the images in the Old Testament that relates to the life of Jesus Christ written in the New Testament.
In the past story “The Works of Rahab”, where this unlikely woman hid the Israelite spies in her house from the pursuers and let them escape from Jericho using a scarlet cord, there is an image that we sometimes miss. Not unless we are given a clearer vision of this scene in the bible.
Let us go back and read the Bible in the book of Joshua 2.
17 So the men said to her: “We will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear, 18 unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household to your own home. 19 So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. 20 And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath which you made us swear.”
Joshua 2:17-21
21 Then she said, “According to your words, so be it.” And she sent them away, and they departed. And she bound the scarlet cord in the window.
The image of the scarlet (red) cord that was hanging outside the window can be represented as the blood of Jesus.
We can prove that there is no salvation without the sacrifice of blood.
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.
Leviticus 17:11
As it was written in The Ten Plagues of Egypt on the tenth Plague of the first born, the blood of the lamb symbolizes the salvation of the Israelites. Jesus was the Lamb who was slain and His blood was the reason we are saved. We all know that fact in the New Testament because of how He died for our sins at the cross.
So the scarlet cord that symbolizes the blood of Christ represents the way of the salvation of Rahab and her family from the Fall of Jericho.
Another interesting image that proves that Jesus was with the Israelites was when Joshua saw a man and called Himself the Commander of the Army of the Lord at the entrance of the promised land. (if unread, click here)
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