Christ in the OT #4

The people of the time (Old Testament) knew who the person of God we call Jesus was

(Sorry for the bad grammar there, if there was any :P)

That's my claim, and I believe it's Biblical. But I'm not claiming that it's at all central or important to understanding the Bible, who God is, or how to be saved.

Where do I get that idea from?

Well, the people who wrote the Old Testament knew that their God was a more than one person God. We know they know this because they wrote the OT that way. Check out Genesis 1:26, "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let..." as an example. Why else would they write that way?

They believed in the Spirit of God, Genesis 1:2, "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." and Exodus 31:3, "and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with..." as two more examples.

And, as previously discussed, they seemed to believe in the Angel of the LORD, who was not the Father but who was God.

(As well as obviously believing in the Father.)

It's the Angel of the LORD bit that I believe to be Jesus. Someone who isn't the Spirit and isn't the Father, but is God. And not just that, but like I said last post, every time they see or hear God directly it must be Jesus they're seeing or hearing, based on what Jesus said himself!

They knew that their God was three persons; Father, Spirit and Son. Further evidence for that is that the New Testament people knew that they were looking for the Christ, the Son of God, before they spent all their time with Jesus.

But what's the big deal?

Well, you could argue that there isn't one, and most people I know do (or they argue that the people just didn't know). But I reckon it does make a difference. I reckon it helps us to have more confidence in two things:
1) The Old Testament really is about Jesus, and anyone who takes the time can see that, you don't need some special fancy person to tell you based on knowledge there's no way you could get. The Bible is for anyone who's prepared to take the time.
2) God is consistent in His love for His people, He doesn't dramatically change between Malachi (the last book of the OT) and Matthew (the first book of the NT), and we need a consistently loving and self-revealing God.