DrIBEX Ideas

I have done a lot of thinking about the Messianic role of our Lord Jesus, and published a book about the subject titled The Messiah: Revealed, Rejected, Received. After nearly forty years studying the Messianic idea I am still discovering wonderful new facets of this subject. To limit one’s study to the individual Messianic prophecies is actually to cover only one area of this great theme. As important as these texts are (Gen. 49:10; Isa. 7:14; Mic. 5:2, e.g.) they are only the tips of a very large iceberg steadily moving under the surface of the OT.

Individual stories must always be understood as part of the larger Story of the Divine meta-narrative in the Bible. We need to read the OT Messianically, not just looking for isolated Messianic texts, but asking how each individual text of the OT plays its role in the larger Messianic “Story” of the entire Bible. I believe Luke 24:25-27 teaches this.

Consider, for example, the teaching about Israel’s firstborn sons in Exo. 13:1-16 (read it!). Looking backward, this text must be seen as the last of a series of previous intertextual links.

1. Israel is God’s firstborn (Exo. 4:22) 2. Pharaoh tries to kill God’s firstborn (Exo. 7-10) 3. God kills Pharaoh’s firstborn (Exo.11). 4. Israel dedicates each of their firstborn (Exo. 13). OK, but does the Story stop there? No, because there is a wealth of later teaching about the “firstborn” that develops and completes the Big Story about this theme, and it culminates in Jesus! Check out these later passages:

Messianic Links with the “Firstborn”

Psa. 89:20,27,28 I have found David My servant; With My holy oil I have anointed him, I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth. My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, and My covenant shall be confirmed to him.

Rom 8.29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

Col 1.15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Heb 1.6 And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.”

Rev 1.5: and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood —

To read the story about Israel’s firstborn is to evoke the larger Story about the Firstborn that finds its consummation in the Messiah, our Lord Jesus. But where do we find ourselves in this story? In other words, so what? Glad you asked. Check out this NT text:

Heb 12.23 you have come … to the general assembly and church of the firstborn (pl.) who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.

If by faith you are incorporated into God’s Firstborn son, then you are a member of the firstborn ones who find their identity before God in Him.

The Messianic Story is not limited to the individual Messianic prophecies, as rich as they are. To read the OT Messianically, we must look both backward and forward to the rich intertextual links that convey the Big Story about the Messiah in our Bibles.