There are three interesting Old Testament accounts which are used in the New Testament to speak concerning the resurrection of Jesus. They are used as prophetic pointers and as typology (types, shadows, images). But all three emphasize some important aspect of our faith and hope. The three stories occurred in the life of Abraham, David and Jonah. I want now to relate those stories and the beneficial aspects of them to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Abraham & Isaac (Genesis 22)

Remember that Isaac was the son of promise to Abraham and Sarah. He is a type of Christ in that he was promised and given my miraculous means. Paul added that we are like Isaac in that we are children of the free and not the children of the bondwoman. He was using Isaac and Ishmael as an analogy to represent the two covenants. (Galatians 4.)

God had promised Abraham that he would bless all nations through his seed. (Genesis 12:3.) Abraham believed God when He promised that his seed would be as numerous as the sand of the sea and as the stars of the heavens. This faith was counted unto him for righteousness. (Gen. 15:1-6.) But there was a problem---Sarah could not bear a son for Abraham and for God to bless all nations. They thought that they would help God out of the difficulty! Sarah told Abraham to bear a son with the bondwoman, Hagar. To them a son was born named Ishmael. Abraham once cried, O that Ishmael might live before thee! (Gen. 17:18.) He had prayed that God would accept this son as the one through whom all nations would be blessed. At every point the faith of Abraham was tested.

Finally, a son was born of Abraham and Sarah in the extremity of their age. He must surely have sighed a sigh of relief. Now I have the son God promised. Life will flow smoothly from now to the day of my death. I will enjoy my son from God. Isaac was at least in his teens; he could have been older. Abraham had not heard from God in many years. And then he have these words:

"And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham . . . take now they son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee." (Gen. 22:1-2.)

This is the first mention of love in the Bible! It occurs in reference to the love of a father for his only Son. God would announce from heaven concerning Jesus, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Just like Abraham of old, God loved his Son and so loved the world that he gave him to us. (John 3:16.)

Nothing could have been further from what one would expect from God. How could he command child-offerings? This was done only by the heathen unto their false gods. Now, the God of heaven is going to command it of Abraham? The kind of faith Abraham had is shown in the very next verse: "And Abraham rose up early in the morning and. . . ." (22:3.)

On the third day Abraham reached the place God named. (22:4.) Jesus arose on the third day. From the time Abraham left his home going to Mount Moriah, young Isaac was dead in his mind. He therefore "arose" on the third day. Abraham prepared the altar and was ready to offer his son. Isaac asked, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham replied, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. (22:7-8.) When Abraham took his knife to slay Isaac, the voice of an angel from heaven stopped him. In the place of Isaac, a ram caught in the thicket was offered in his place. Abraham called the place, Jehovahjireh, that is, God will provide. (22:14.)

We must wait until Hebrews 11:17-19 to learn something about Abraham’s faith that we are not told in Genesis 22. The writer said he believed that God will raise up Isaac, even from the dead, from whence he also received him in a figure. This faith of Abraham is the kind of faith that justifies. Just as righteousness was imputed to Abraham for so believing, it will also be imputed to us if we believe that God raised his son from the dead. (Gen. 15:6, Gal. 3:6, Rom. 4:3.)

"Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification." (Romans 4:23-25.)

Abraham believed that God would raise up Isaac before he did so. Abraham said to the young men with them, "Abide ye here with the donkey. I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." (Gen. 22:5.) He believed that both of them would be returning. The disciples of Jesus were not required to believe it before, but only afterward. It is easier to believe after the fact than before. Jesus is the real Lamb that God provided for a sacrifice. He did offer his only Son. Our justification comes through believing that God raised Jesus from the dead.

#2: Jonah and the Fish (Jonah, Matthew 12:38-40.)

The story of Jonah is one of the most remarkable in Scripture. It is known by young children. It is fascinating and challenging.

We should know the account on an adult level as well. There is more to it than something spectacular and strange. A man surviving such an ordeal is astonishing. It is so unusual than many adults have dismissed the whole account as myth. Jesus did not think about Jonah as just a story. He said,

"An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here." (Matt. 12:39-41.)

Luke added, "For as Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation." (Luke 11:30.)

Jonah the prophet is authenticated by the words of Jesus and OT history.

(2 Kings 14:23-29.)

1) Jonah served under Jeroboan II (793-753 BC), king of Israel, who reigned 41 years. Jonah was the king’s prophetic adviser respecting his military movements.

2) Jeroboam II was one of the most prosperous kings in Jewish history. He reconquered the land east of Jordan including Ammon and Moab, defeated Syria and attacked Damascus, though he did not capture it. This re-established the original boundaries of Israel.

3) Jonah prophesied concerning the expansion of Israel under Jeroboam II.

4) Jonah was a well-known and popular prophet in Israel. Leaders of surrounding nations, like Nineveh, would have known him.

5) It should not surprise us that in God’s wisdom Jonah was selected to preach to the Ninevites. Nineveh was the capital of the nation of Assyria.

6) Jonah was sent to Nineveh about 780 BC. About sixty years later (721 BC), Assyria conquered the northern tribes of Israel. God wanted to bring this large and idolatrous nation to repentance.

7) Israel hated Assyria; Jonah reflected the Jewish attitude. He wanted them to perish. The Jews mistakenly thought that God care for Israel alone. Note Romans 3:29. "Is he the God of the Jews only?" Paul asked them.

8) The Assyrians were a powerful and cruel nation. They were harsh to those captured in war. Sometimes they even skinned their captors while alive!

This is the historical setting for Jonah. It is not a fairy tale or myth. He was a well-known, popular prophet under Jeroboam II and known by the Assyrians. This admittedly unusual event of a man being swallowed alive and vomited out on dry land fits in a real historical setting. It does not occur in an unknown mystical place. Jonah was sent on a mission to preach to Nineveh. His message was simple: Repent or in 40 days you will be overthrown! (Jonah 3:4.)

Jonah was like Jesus in that both were in the a type of grave for three days and then came forth alive. Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites; Jesus was a sign to the people of his generation who sought for one.

In addition to the story of Jonah and the great fish, another aspect of the account that has been questioned is the repentance of everyone from the king down. How did he accomplish that when he did not even want to do it?? The news of what happened at sea would have spread rapidly, even to Nineveh. The story preceded Jonah’s arrival. This helps us to answer the question of why all of Nineveh repented. The man that they had been told about showed up preaching. They were astonished. The question would have gone from person to person, Who is this preacher?

"The answer, that he was the great prophet of Israel, by whose supernatural foresight the victories of Jeroboam, running through a period of forty years, had been won, was enough to arrest the solemn attention. But when it was added that on first receiving the command to come and utter this cry, he tried to escape the task by running away, and sailing far out upon the sea, but that Jehovah, who had given the command, overtook him, brought him back in the bowels of a fish, cast him out alive on dry land, and then renewed the command, this added tenfold power to the word of the prophet." (Jonah and Jesus, J. W. McGarvey, 56.)

This account of Jonah the prophet should be taken literally. We have every reason for so understanding it. The account fits in an historical setting with a serious meaning. Jesus used this story to the Pharisees who asked for a sign because Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites. Like Jonah Jesus would come forth from the grave after three days. He foretold that he would arise. They all knew what he had said, even the Jews who did not believe. (Matt. 27:63.) Thus, Jesus became a sign to his generation as well.

#3: David and the Sepulcher (Acts 2:29-31, Psalm 16:10, Acts 13:33-37.)

David wrote, "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (Sheol, Hades); neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."

The question would immediately arise: Was David speaking concerning himself or another. He did refer to the Holy One. Surely that was Someone other than David. In addition, David wrote that this Holy One would not see corruption in his body, neither would his spirit be left in the Hadean world.

Peter preached on Pentecost in Jerusalem: "Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth. . . Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain; whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David that he both dead and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of this loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses." (Acts 2:22-32.)

Peter masterfully used Scripture with which the Jews were familiar. He showed how that David spoke of someone who would not see corruption in death. He then must be raised. Was he speaking of David or another? Peter reasoned that it could not have been David because he did see corruption. They knew where his tomb was located. Peter said that it applied to Jesus. He was raised to sit on "David’s throne." Jesus was born through the lineage of David. God had promised this to David, just as He had promised Abraham of old that through Isaac all nations would be blessed.