Getting to Know Jesus, From Genesis to Revelation

Did you know that the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, points us to Jesus Christ? Even from the very first letter of Genesis? The first word in Genesis in Hebrew is "Beresheet" which means "in the beginning". The first letter of Beresheet is "bet". The last word of Revelation is "Amen", ending in the Hebrew letter "nun". These two Hebrew letters, which bookend the entire Bible, spell "ben" in Hebrew which means "son". Wow! Isn't that amazing?!

From the first letter to the last letter, it all points to the Son, Jesus Christ. This is perfectly reflected in Revelation 22:13 where our Savior tells us:

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."

Jesus was there from the very beginning of creation as Apostle John tells us in John 1:1-3,

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."

Let us take a look at the Old Testament and how it points to Jesus. There's the fall of man into sin & death by a tree which leads to Jesus overcoming sin & death by dying on a tree. Biblical heroes such as Moses, Joseph and Esther saved their people which foreshadowed Jesus saving all of mankind. There's the lineage of Jesus from the very beginning... from Adam to Seth to Noah to Abraham to Jacob to Judah & Tamar to Ruth to David to Jesus. There's the foreshadowing story of Abraham willing to sacrifice his only son. There's the story of Jonah in the big fish for 3 days which Jesus, himself, referred to when explaining the time he would spend in the tomb.

The Old Testament also contains numerous prophecies of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, the Passover meal, the betrayal of Judas, Jesus’ sacrifice, his 3 days in the tomb, his resurrection and his glorious second coming. These can be found in Leviticus 23, Psalms 22, Jonah 1 & 2, Zechariah 9 & 11, Isaiah 53 and Zechariah 14 just to name a few.

Another epic event pointing to Jesus is the escape of the Israelites from Egypt and their journey to the Promised Land. It completely foreshadows and parallels our life with Jesus who gives us a way to escape our bondage to sin and is guiding us, interceding for us and leading us into the Promised Land of God's Kingdom.

The Old Testament is abundantly rich in epic events, heroes, prophecies, songs, imagery, and dialogue pointing us to our Savior, Jesus Christ. As Apostle Paul tells us in II Timothy 3:16,

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."

It doesn't say "some scripture", it says "ALL scripture" is God-breathed AND useful. And when Paul wrote this passage, there was NO New Testament yet... there was ONLY the Old Testament.

As we see, Jesus is literally the beginning and end of the bible starting with the very first letter in Genesis 1:1. And he is woven everywhere in-between. If we want to get to know Jesus more deeply and more intimately, we have to know the WHOLE story, not just part of it.

Think about the people in your life with whom you have the closest and strongest relationships. Do you only know about their life from the moment you met? OR do you know their past, where they came from, their childhood experiences, what sports they played in high school, where they went to college and so forth? It's the same with Jesus. If we dig deeper and embrace his ENTIRE story found in Genesis to Revelation, we will develop a stronger and closer relationship with our Messiah, our Savior, Jesus Christ.