Jesus Explained the Scriptures

We are meditating on the events of the day when Jesus was resurrected. Christ appeared to two despondent disciples on the road to Emmaus, about seven miles west of Jerusalem. They said to Jesus, “but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). They both talked about their former belief that Christ was the Redeemer of Israel, but their words were in the past tense, revealing that His death on the cross now led them to believe that Jesus was not the Savior. It is interesting to note what the disguised Jesus said to them in reply:

²⁵He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" ²⁷And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:25-27). 

These two disciples needed to understand what the Scriptures taught. They only had a limited understanding of what God was going to do. When they read the writings of Moses, they did not look closely and ask the “why’ of the text. We can learn a lot by the “who, what, when, where, and why” questions that we can ask of the text. The two disciples had clouded vision due to their belief that Jesus' mission was to release them from Rome's bondage and occupation. The Lord began to explain the Old Testament Scriptures to them, starting with Moses and the Prophets (v. 27). We don’t know what Scriptures Jesus spoke to them, so let me put to you a few possibilities. 

Perhaps Jesus explained what Moses wrote in the first five books of Moses, that God would send a Deliverer to crush the serpent's head (a picture of Satan): “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). He probably explained how the substitutionary Passover lamb’s blood that was shed and placed on the lintel and door posts of the doors would deliver the obedient from Pharaoh’s slavery. Perhaps, He explained that the Rock that was smitten by Moses, thus bringing forth water for Israel, was a picture of the Rock of Israel, Christ, being struck for sin so that the Holy Spirit would be poured out for the thirsty (Exodus 17:6). Paul the Apostle also wrote about Christ being the Rock of Israel. He wrote that they all “drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). Perhaps, He explained that the heavenly food that came to Israel while in the desert was a picture of the heavenly bread of life that God would give, i.e., a picture of Christ, the Bread of Life:

³²Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”³⁴“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” ³⁵Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:32-35). 

Perhaps, He also explained that Moses had said, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him” (Deuteronomy 18:15). Pharaoh and Egypt were a picture given hundreds of years before Christ of the greater bondage and servitude of sin that will not release its slaves unless payment is made by of the death of a substitute, i.e., the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

What was written in the first five books of Moses were real things that happened, but they were also types and shadows of the work of Christ to deliver us from the power and guilt of sin. Yes, the Living Christ explained the Scriptures to them as they walked. I trust that is what is happening to you through these meditations, the Lord Jesus opening your eyes to see His saving power to us. 

Keith