The “Messiah In the Old Testament” is a book about the Lord Jesus Christ and how he is revealed in the pages of the Old Testament. The book systematically goes through the books of the Old Testament after a brief introduction and description of the Messiah in the Pentateuch. There are a total of ten chapters in “The Messiah In The Old Testament” of which the first two have been communicated above. The remaining eight chapters, (Chapters 3-10), respectively are titled: “The Messiah Before and During the Davidic Monarchy”, “The Messiah in the Psalms” (Part 1), “The Messiah in the Psalms” (Part 2), “The Messiah in the Ninth- and Eighth-Century Prophets”, “The Messiah in the Eighth-Century Prophets (Isaiah)”, “The Messiah in the Seventh- and Sixth-Century Prophets”, “The Messiah in the Postexilic Prophets”, and finally the “Conclusion”. There are a few Appendixes and Indexes for the convenience of the reader to use.
The introduction poses the question of what is a Christian? The answer given by most people is “One who believes that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ the Jews were expecting” but the author indicates that this common answer is not all together accurate, while not too far off the mark, it assumes three things: “1 that the title ‘Christ’ fully categorizes Jesus, 2 that Christians are clear and in agreement on what this title, ‘Christ’ denotes, and, 3 that all, or virtually all, Jews during the time of Jesus were looking for the coming of the Messiah or Christ.” Within the introduction several definitions are given, the interpretative concepts of Dual Meaning and single meaning are introduced under the category “Starting Points” which looks at where and how to begin studying the Old Testament . Under the “Proposal” section traditional and conservative beliefs are compared and contrasted.The rest of the chapter deals with: “The Promise-Plan of God”, and “Problems in Messianic Interpretation”.
The next chapter takes a look at the Messiah and how he fulfilled prophecies within the Pentateuch, which is the first five books of the Bible, commonly referred to as the books of the law.The spectrum of prophecies fulfilled within the Pentateuch ranges from those found in the book of Genesis, Numbers and through Deuteronomy.The Appendix for this chapter examines how Christ can be found in the book of Job.
Chapter 3 is focused on “The Messiah Before and During the Davidic Monarchy” and how Samuel was the first in the line of prophets predicted by Moses yet at the same time he was the last of the Judges of the nation of Israel.The chapter alludes to the fact that Samuel predicted the coming of the Messiah in Hannah’s prophecy in reference to the anointed one.The chapter makes the point that Christ fulfilled, (and is currently fulfilling I might add), the three roles of Judge, Priest and King. The Psalms and the Wisdom books are then explained in the context of how to look for the Messiah within its pages.
Chapters four and five take off where chapter 3 ends with further study of the Psalms as is related to the Messiah in the Old Testament and communicates that “The greatest single block of predictive matter concerning the Savior to be found anywhere in the Old Testament” (Kaiser, PG 92), is the book of Psalms. Some of the themes of Messianic prophecy found in the Psalms include; David’s Greater Son (Pss 89; 132), The Mystery of the Incarnation (Pss 8; 40), The Rejection of the Messiah (Pss 118; 78:1-2 ), The Betrayal of the Messiah (Pss 69, 109), Death and Beyond (Pss 22; 2), Victory Over Death (Pss 16; 102), Messiah’s Marriage and Ministry (Pss 45; 110), and The Reign of the Glorious King (Pss 72; 68), (Kaiser Jr, 93).
Chapters six looks at the Christ through the Ninth-and Eighth-Century Prophets and makes the point that the Promise Plan of the Messiah was not over when the “covenant promises made to Eve, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David were over.”(Kaieser, pg 136).Chapter 6 also reinforces the two hermeneutical principles for interpreting Messianic doctrine, the first being the concept of inaugurated eschatology, “in which the writers of Scripture embody a “now” along with a “not yet” aspect to many of their predictions about the future.” The second hermeneutical concept is that of corporate solidarity where the context of a name like Israel must be examined in order to properly determine exactly who is in view during the passage, whether it be the “country, Jewish people, the religious body, sometimes the spiritually minded, or sometimes the NT believer.
Chapter seven is dedicated to the prophet Isaiah and cites him as being one of “the most prolific announcers of the Messiah and his times among the OT prophets”. (Kaiser, pg 155). The author also notes that forty seven our of Isaiah’s sixty six chapter are directly eluded in the New testament . The topics covered in the book are; The Messiah as King, The Messiah as Servant, and The Messiah as Anointed Conqueror. Chapter eight is concerned with the Messiah in the Seventh- and Sixth-Century Prophets and finds the theme of the Gospel interwoven in each of the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Jeremiah speaks of the Messiah as “the LORD Our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:5-6), the Messiah as the Priestly King (Jeremiah 30:9, 21), and the “Inviolable Promise about the Messiah (Jeremiah 33:14-26). The book of Ezekiel examines the “Messiah as the Tender Sprig (Ezekiel 17:22-24), The Messiah as the Rightful King (Ezekiel 21:25-27) and the Messiah as the Good Shepherd (Ezekiel 34:23-31), and the Messiah as the Great Unifier of the Nation (Ezekiel 37:15-28). The book of Daniel addresses the Messiah as the son of Man (Daniel 7:13-14), and the Messiah as the Anointed Ruler Who Will Come (Daniel 9:24-27). Chapter nine takes a look at the Messiah in the Postexilic Prophets, to include; Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The topics covered in Haggai are; the Messiah as the Desire of the Nations. (Haggai are 2:6-9), and The Messiah as God’s Signet Ring (Haggai 2:21-23) The Topics discussed in Zechariah are; the Messiah’s Work as high priest (Zechariah 3:8-10), the Messiah as the King-Priest: Ruler Over all nations (Zechariah 6:9-15), the Messiah as the King (Zechariah 9:9-10), the Messiah’s Four Titles (Zechariah 10:4), the Messiah as the Rejected Good Shepherd (Zechariah 11:4-14), the Messiah as the pierced one (Zechariah 12:10), and the Messiah as the smitten Companion of the Lord (Zechariah 13:7). The Messiah in Malachi addresses the issues of; the Messiah as the Messenger of the covenant, (Malachi 3:1), and the Messiah as the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2)
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I believe that the proper basis for a stable relationship is the life that grows in grace and peace in Messiah. Paige Christ