Old Testament to New Testament.
Exodus 12:46 In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones.
Numbers 9:12 They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break any of its bones. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it.
Psalm 34:20 He guards all his bones, not one of them is broken.
In the Old Testament, there were a series of laws and sacrifices to be made and kept. The first few times I read much of the OT, I found it daunting and kept asking ‘why? What am I supposed to see and understand here?’ It felt like a burden to read through laws, consequences and felt like it was a bunch of blood, gore, and punishment, and I wondered at this “loving God.”
But I attended bible studies, listened to many sermons, not just at my own church, but lessons from the Stanleys, Franklin Graham, Joyce Meyer and a few others. And I began to have the doors opened in my brain. It is a process as I still learn. So much of the OT was missing for me until I began to see and understand the prophesies, the predictions that a Messiah would finally come and free God’s people. I didn’t see the connection with so many of God’s prophets and messengers who talked of sheep, shepherds and certainly did not fully grasp all it warned, both for those times, and for now.
It is so amazing to make the connections. There are over 200 prophesies that Jesus fulfilled before His death, many of which He could not be responsible for seeing come to pass. It was predicted that His garment, a lovely one piece cloak/robe, would be gambled for as the soldiers recognized it was a lovely garment. His legs would not be broken, although it was common practice to break the legs of those crucified. But because of His horrific injuries over the several hours before He was crucified, He was already dead. But God says in the OT not to break the legs of a sacrificial animal—the animal is to be pure and without blemish, and his legs are not to be broken. (Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12, Psalm 34:20).
How could Jesus possibly have participated in the Roman soldiers not breaking His legs, or in the piercing of His side? How could He have influenced them gambling for His robe? He knew all that would occur, the pain, the humiliation, the abandonment of His friends and all before His death. Jesus knew exactly what He was facing, and willingly spread out His arms and died. He was the Passover Lamb, without sin or blemish. It is amazing to me to now realize how the OT is absolutely connected to the NT.
I challenge you to read the bible through one time and look for the connections from the OT to the NT. The OT is not just a story of laws and rules and sacrifices. It is also the genealogy of Jesus, and there were many sinners on that list—Tamar, Judah, Bathsheba, David, and it shows how fallible we all are. And yet, this was God’s plan, His line to His Son, the Messiah, our Savior as long as we believe He came to live, die via sacrifice, rise, and live now and forever more; and that He takes away our sin if we heartily confess and want to follow Him.
I am thankful everyday that I have Him in my life. This changed me and ‘mybellaviews’ forever.
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