“The Old Testament is filled with “ultrasounds” of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, I believe–as our own David Murray has said–“on every page”, we will find our Savior, if we only have the eyes to see Him. He does however, appear in the rough and sometimes two-dimensional form that ultrasounds present our children in the womb.”

One of the great difficulties we encounter when we seek to preach Christ from the Old Testament is the challenge of being able to rightly apply the text–both in its original context and then to our own. After all, a chasm of thousands of years exists between the life of the patriarchs and monarchs of Israel and us. What does their experience have to do with ours? How could Christ be preached to them centuries before His coming, and still be preached to us from the same events, teachings and texts? One of the illustrations that I have found to be most helpful in answering this question is that of an ultrasound. So how can ultrasounds better help us understand how to preach Christ from the Old Testament?

For expecting parents the numerous ultrasounds they undergo during pregnancies can be both a blessing or a  great trauma. My wife and I have been blessed with four sons, each of whom was born healthy and each of whom we saw in utero via the ultra sound. We also lost a child in utero while living in the UK. Ultrasounds can bring good news, or bad news.

Ultrasounds give an insight into what is to come–a long expected baby. A typical two-dimensional ultrasound provides a rough and somewhat blurry picture of the little one inside its mother. The new three-dimensional ultrasounds provide even more detail of the little one in the womb. Parents all over the world live in anticipation of the ultra sound – will their child be healthy, or will there be problems in development and growth?

A good report of a child progressing normally is accompanied by that wonderful ultrasound picture, which–in turn–gets framed or placed in a scrap book. Just about everyone is shown the picture, and we all try to make out the various features of the unclear image – a hand waving, and arm or foot, or even a nose. Yet sometimes the ultrasound provides hard, sad or even tragic information. Abnormalities in measurements, abnormal heart beats or even no heart beat. Yet, still a picture of the little one. Perhaps that is all the parents will have of that little one for years to come – a picture, but not a happy ending, at least in this life.

What does all this have to do with hermeneutics and exegesis? The Old Testament is filled with “ultrasounds” of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, I believe–as our own David Murray has said–“on every page”, we will find our Savior, if we only have the eyes to see Him. He does however, appear in the rough and sometimes two-dimensional form that ultrasounds present our children in the womb. As in the picture, so in the text: it is not always clear how our Lord is seen, and sometimes even more difficult to see why things are as the way they are.

Perhaps we can pursue the ultrasound analogy even further. There are blessed ultrasounds of Christ – His kingly reign and majesty, His glory, His care for his flock in protection and teaching, etc. These picture Christ as a the great King and Prophet of his people. And there are others which speak of his sorrow, pain, suffering and death. Here, He is pictured as the High Priest offering up himself as a sacrifice for sins. We see Jesus in death, burial and resurrection-glory throughout all of Scripture.

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