by Trent
Paul, The author of Corinthians, has pointed the way to finding the Messiah in the Old Testament:
1 Corinthians 10:1-4 (NIV) © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
(1) For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. (2)They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. (3)They all ate the same spiritual food (4)and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Mainly, I am pointing to verse 4. "That rock [from which they drank] was Christ."
Paul is speaking about the way that God's chosen people were dying of thirst in the desert, and Moses was commanded to strike a rock in the desert that then gushed with drinkable water, and gave life to the hopeless nation, and even followed them around supplying them with limitless drinking water. Paul is saying that the rock that followed them, and from which they drank was not a mere rock. That rock was Jesus Christ the Lord.
Now, you might have been told that the Lord only came around in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. But, that is not the case. If we are to believe the Bible, then we have to be open to the notion that Jesus is older then Abraham.
In Theology, the word for this phenomenon is "Theophony" or "Christophony." If you a search in Google with the word "Christophony" then you will find a wealth of information and references to this throughout the Old Testament. But, Paul had something better then Google to find this one ...
I want to encourage you to find these references using the best tool of all: The Holy Spirit.
John 15:26
"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.
By the Spirit, I pray that your eyes are opened to the plethora of Christophonies in the Bible, and are able to see Christ in the Old Testament as did Paul. For just like Paul, you and I were never around to see Him in his flesh.
Behold the Lamb of God! Without spot or blemish sent to die for the sins of the world, bearing the full weight of transgression in His own body. My Son, you are, and will always be, the Risen Lamb of God, whereby you took the leaven of the world, having completely unleavened all men once for all time by your blood, having been the perfect sacrifice for sin, acceptable to God, whereby men have been reconciled to the Father; they themselves becoming once again My sons and daughters free to enter the Garden and My love, which they shall never again be separated; their new life lived in and for Christ Jesus, the Lord and Savior, in whom I am well pleased. ~ God [Letters from God and His Christ - Volume 5 - Unleavened]