ALL SCRIPTURES POINT TO JESUS (PART XIII)

“On the Road to Emmaus”

By Akin Ojumu

For those of you who read my commentaries, if there’s anything at all that you could point to as a key takeaway, I wish above all things that it would be the fact that Christ is the focus of all Scriptures. It’s my hope that I’ve not failed to make it crystal clear to you that Christ is not only the Key that opens the door to understanding the content and context of Scriptures, but also that Christ is the central theme and the subject of the entire Bible.

From Genesis to Revelations, all of Scriptures are about Christ. While the Old Testament prophesied about His coming, the New Testament testified about Him living among us and His eventual return at the end of the age when He comes back in glory and power to establish His everlasting Kingdom.

In the Law, we see types and shadows of Christ as the Lamb of God who gave Himself as an offering for sin. Meanwhile, the Prophets tell us of His birth, rejection, suffering, and crucifixion. We read in the Gospels about His life and ministry. And in the Epistles are an account of the expansion of His Kingdom on earth demonstrated in the spreading of the Gospel, summed up by Paul when he said, “We preach Christ crucified.”

Christ Himself attested to His centrality in the Scriptures when, after His crucifixion and resurrection, He appeared to two of His disillusioned disciples traveling from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Dejected and disillusioned, and prevented from recognizing their Lord and Master, they bristled at the fellow traveler who had joined them on the seven-mile journey who seemed not to know what had transpired in the previous three days in Jerusalem. 

Flabbergasted that anyone in Jerusalem had not heard the news of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, Cleopas, one of the two traveling disciples, retorted:

Luke 24:18

“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

Expressing their disappointment, they told the traveler how they had hoped that this Jesus was the Christ who would redeem Israel. They couldn’t contain their annoyance and skepticism at some women of their company who had earlier in the day told them that Jesus was alive. They dismissed such news as fake news.

In response to their whining, pity party and doubts, however, the Lord Jesus sharply rebuked them, saying:

Luke 24:25-26

“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Seeing that they had already forgotten all the things it took three years to teach them, the Lord Jesus had to do a refresher. He walked the dimwitted disciples through the entire Scriptures to show them, like He did in the last three years, everything that was written about Him.

Luke 24:27

“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

As the Lord Jesus took them on the journey through Scriptures, slowly the bright light of understanding began to flood their minds. The eyes of their understanding being enlightened, the scale of ignorance gradually melted. Bit by bit, the pure knowledge of the truth of God, like heat, burnt away their unbelief. On their inside, the transformative work of the Holy Spirit ignited a sense of warmth and passion.

Luke 24:32

“They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

After washing the two disciples with the washing of the Word of God, the Lord once again repeated for their benefit the ordinance of the Last Supper, something they had experienced barely three days earlier. As He took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them, their eyes were opened. The risen Christ revealed Himself to the two forgetful and foolish disciples through the illuminating light of Scriptures and in the breaking of Bread. 

When the Lord Jesus walked the two disciples through the Scriptures, one of the things written about Him that He must have shown them was how the story of Joseph was a type and shadow of the Christ. In a way, this commentary can be likened to our own journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus. As we walk along, the Lord Jesus will show us, through the life of Joseph, the things that have been written concerning Himself.

In today’s iteration of this series, we’ll take two additional connections between Joseph and Jesus to explore.

Connection 31

Joseph was thirty years old when he was appointed second in command to Pharaoh and began his reign as Prime Minister in Egypt. Of course, it’s difficult to miss the uncanny similarity to the age when the Lord Jesus launched His own ministry; He was also thirty years old.

Genesis 41:46

“Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

Luke 2:23

“Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age…”

Connection 32

Joseph was appointed by Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to oversee the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine in the land of Egypt for the salvation of his people from starvation. 

Again, this is symbolic of the ministry of Jesus. The seven years of plenty is a parallel to the three years of Christ’s ministry. Likewise, the seven years of famine is symbolic of the period of the absence of Christ after He had been taken up into Heaven.

During the three-year period of His ministry, the Lord Jesus prepared His disciples for the period of His departure when He would no longer be with them. Through revelatory teachings and diverse miracles, He stored up for them the spiritual sustenance they’d need during the period of famine when He’d have gone back to Heaven. Christ, as it were, stockpiled for them a reservoir of spiritual food and knowledge necessary for their spiritual salvation in the lean years of His departure.

In the years of famine, when their Lord is no longer with them, the disciples would come to draw from the storehouse spiritual food and knowledge that had been accumulated for them in the years of plenty when the Lord was with them.

Genesis 41:47-49

“During the seven plentiful years the earth produced abundantly, and he gathered up all the food of these seven years, which occurred in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities. He put in every city the food from the fields around it. And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured.”

Genesis 41:53-55

“The seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do.”

Matthew 11:1

“When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.”

Mark 4:1

“Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.”

Luke 11:1-4

“Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”

Matthew 13:36-37

“Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.”

To be continued.