The Hope of the Resurrection That Is Found in the Old Testament
Resurrection Is Foretold
When Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, he insists that he must be raised on the third day. Then in Luke 24 after the resurrection, he’s talking with his disciples, and he says it was necessary that the Messiah enter into his sufferings and be raised on the third day.
So where does this concept that Jesus must be raised come from? Why is it necessary for him to be raised? It’s because it’s already predicted in the Old Testament. The resurrection is not a new idea on Jesus’s lips. Even Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. So where does this come from? It actually starts as early as the book of Genesis. If you think about Isaac, he’s almost sacrificed by his father Abraham. But Abraham tells the people he’s with, “The boy and I will worship over there, and we will come back to you.”
So Abraham has in his mind some kind of concept, maybe vague at the time, but some kind of seedling understanding of resurrection. Hebrews 11 says that that’s exactly what happened—that Abraham received him back as a type of resurrection. But even before Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac, even Isaac’s birth is said, in Romans 4, to come from the dead womb of Sarah—which is also a type of resurrection.
Return from Exile and the Renewal of God's People
Nicholas G. Piotrowski
Focusing primarily on the journeys of Abraham, Joseph, and Jesus, Nicholas G. Piotrowski examines exile stories throughout Scripture, showing how they illustrate humanity’s ultimate need for a Savior.
And so the Old Testament has these not exactly explicit predictions early on, but nonetheless these sort of types that foreshadow something greater in reality, which will ultimately be the resurrection of Jesus.
The exodus is the same way. Across the Old Testament, it speaks of going down into the grave. Equally, Israel goes down into Egypt, and then they come up out of Egypt. And when they are in Egypt, the entire nation is nearly exterminated. But then lo and behold, they come out alive. They come through the water of the Red Sea, where Pharaoh’s army goes in and they’re killed, but Israel comes out alive. So you can see in the exodus these types of resurrection.
And then in the psalms—especially in the first book of Psalms—David speaks of living on the edge of the grave. He says, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” That’s not just metaphorical language, but David is constantly in peril and near death. He thinks he’s going to die. But then consistently through those psalms, he comes out alive and more so to rule the nations.
Once you get to the prophets, it gets really explicit. Books like Ezekiel and Daniel speak of this mass resurrection of Israel at the end of the age, far more explicit than just in the types and poetry of the earlier parts of the Old Testament. So when Jesus the Messiah speaks of his death, he also speaks, therefore, that he must be raised as a fulfillment of the Scriptures.
Nicholas G. Piotrowski is the author of Return from Exile and the Renewal of God’s People.
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